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#and since these kind of apps are payed of course they have to interact even if they don't want to

mudhamster · 6 months

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CHWHWN: 19. December - " a wish"

Kacchan: *image attached* It's not necessarily a wish just for me. And you can tell me if you don't want it. Deku:( ⚆ _ ⚆ ) What is it? Kacchan: told Kiri about the evening with your quirk analysis books. Got some of him? And his quirk? Deku: I have the whole class. Kacchan: Course you do.. One book each? Deku: At the moment, yes. I reserved a book for each of our classmates, but not all of them are full. So you wish for me to analyze Kirishima's quirk? Kacchan: Yes. He'll freak out when he finds out, trust me Deku: Okay. Shall I invite him to my place? Or do you want to get the book? Kacchan: Hm The wish doesn't have a limit per se, right? Deku: ...I guess not, no. Why? Kacchan: And you have notes on the rest of the gang? Denks and Ashido? Even Hanta? Deku: I have the whole class. Kacchan: Ok listen I wish for you to grab your notebooks on my friends and come over at my place later. I still have the Gamecube since half of these guys are going home tomorrow night. We gonna play. Deku: Ok Kacchan: You cool with that? Deku: What time? Kacchan: 17:00? Deku: ok

He didn't know what it was, but it was probably approaching Christmas. Kacchan had made his wish.

For his friends.

Izuku wanted to cry.

If only he wasn't bursting with anticipation at the thought that he would be an invited and accepted part of the Bakusquad tonight. He loved his friends to pieces. But something about the others was ... badass. Cool. He squeaked into his hands - then his phone rang. Really. A real call.

"K-kacchan?"

"You okay?"

Irritated, he checked once more that he hadn't made a mistake and that it was really Katsuki, then he said, "Um, yeah? Yeah, why?"

"Cause you wrote as if you had... dunno. Like you weren't up for it?"

"I am up for it!"

"Even to bring your notes?"

"...Well. You know how embarrassed I am when people realize how carefully I pay attention," he thought aloud, and a low hum came from the other end of the line. "But if it makes them happy, then of course I'm happy to make them happy. And to help."

The line was quiet for a moment.

"100% sure?" Kacchan asked and Izuku sat down on his bed with a small smile as he continued to listen, "You've the absolute freedom to tell me if you don't wanna."

Wow. Who was this considerate gentleman on the phone? And what had he done to Kacchan?

"Wow. Kacchan sugoi," he cooed into the phone and started to grin, "it's okay, really. Sweet of you to ask, though."

"Shut up."

It sounded more offended than insulting.

"I'll be at your place at 5:00, Kacchan. With the books. To kick your ass on the Gamecube while the others read."

The microphone buzzed, the only hint of Kacchan's snort, "Fuck you, Deku. I'm being considerate for once and -"

"Thanks for your consideration," he gushed, beaming at his shelf of notebooks, "see you later!"

After hanging up, he glanced at his cell phone.

Wow. They had never talked on the phone before. His eyes scanned his apps, then were caught on the screen by his mother's wave. A picture of the two of them, splattered in dirt, digging up the garden. He could call her... distract himself, plan their Christmas Eve.

Or... he could go through his entire closet, hoping to find something that would make him look more like a cool guy than a dorky nerd.

He opened the little app with the notes for the calendar.

Advice, Victory, A Hug, An Ear, JOKER, Hot Chocolate

Two of them were already gone, but still unused.

"The hot chocolate is still in there, guaranteed."

And the rest ... Izuku placed the cell phone on his chest and looked at the ceiling. Was it enough? Had they created a foundation on which they could build more than just friendship?

He had held Kacchan's hand. For those ten minutes, on the way back to the dorm. Their interaction had been different, no question. But was it enough for what he wanted to do? Now he knew what kind of chocolate Kacchan ate on Valentine's Day - and according to him, no one else beside him ever did.

But couldn't all that …still count as friendship? Sure, not as a normal one .... but then he thought of Ochako and Shouto. He knew what kind of chocolate they liked best. And he had already held their hands, hugged them plenty and even dried their tears.

He and Kacchan still had a long way to go to be more than just friends. Did they have to be best friends to become more? Was it enough to be regular friends before they could become...more?

Today's “wish” was originally meant for both of them. The whole calendar was.

But they wouldn't meet like this today, not when the room was filled with Katsuki's friends. He liked them, all of them, but he noticed the small disappointment that Kacchan hadn't taken the chance to wish for something else. Another hand massage. Another fight. In short, time for two.

Advice, victory and an ear, he thought.

Kacchan doesn't take advice. And even if he did, it wouldn't change their current relationship. The same applied to victory. And even more so for the moment when he lent him an ear. However and whenever that would ever be realized to open the 24.

The hug.

Everything would be built up to the day he gave the hug. That was the only and last day Izuku could show that the calendar had a purpose other than just being nice.

But how?

The hug would have to be longer, tighter, more intimate than any of his hugs before. He would have to do something he hadn't done with Shouto or Ochako. He could put his hands under Kacchan's sweater.

"Nonsense."

He could let his hands sink lower. To his ... butt.

"Oh my God."

He could reach up and grab his face and pull it down and see what happened. Maybe ... they would ...?

"OH GOD." His face flushed at the image, he rolled over onto his side and screamed into his pillow.

Now, with only 4 chances left, the pressure to get it right increased tenfold.

Crap.

#bkdk #mha #bakudeku #izuku midoriya #boku no hero academia #deku #fanfiction #fluff #kacchan #chwhwn #katsuki bakugou #christmasbkdk #christmas #xmas #archive of our own #ao3 writer #fanfic #ao3

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momo-de-avis · 7 months

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Be warned that this post is going to be extremely TMI, scroll along if you don't want it to ruin your parasocial relationship with me

They scheduled me an MRI back in September

The appointment is named like MRI followed by a bunch of medical terms that I, of course, don't understand.

The lady that scheduled it for me did not explain what it was.

My doctor did not explain to me what it was.

Nobody explained anything.

I've had an MRI before, two in fact, one done to my head and one with contrast when I was in the emergency ward of the hospital screaming in pain, so this second time I wasn't really paying attention to what the fuck an MRI entails except that you're put in a gigantic washing mashine thay sucks metal and makes a lot of noise (and the metal thing I know from Dr House)

So imagine my surprise when I arrive at the hospital and the receptionist asks me if took all the precautions required. I'm like. What now?

She goes. Oh, the medication you need to take beforehand.

I'm stuttering. what the fuck do you mean.

I scroll furiously through my email trying to find the appointment and hey. Guess what. It does say there that there's this one medication I have to take, which requires some physical interaction, and that I need to be on an empty stomach 4h prior. It doesn't say where I'm supposed to get this medication, nor does it say how to take it, cause I have no idea (in the smallest letters imaginable, at the bottom of everything, like scroll endlessly for it). I've never taken this shit

Mind you, the lady that made this appointment also made 5 other apps that day: an x ray, blood tests, an EKG, urine tests, and two other apps with an anesthesiologist and my gynecologist. Yes this was all for a surgery I'm going under in January. She also explained to me what to expect of the surgery, how to bathe myself 24h prior, what to expect of every single exam except the MRI.

So here's what she, or my doctor, failed to explain to me about this MRI, I am assuming because they assumed I'd done one and it's basically the same. Which stupidly, is what I thought.

She failed to explain to me that the medication I needed to take the morning of was for me NOT to, and now I'm going to translate into colloquial terms what the kind doctor explained to me, shit myself. And why would you shir yourself in a machine that sucks metal, spins and sounds like one of those horror ARGs on YouTube? Because she also failed to explain to me that, since this is an MRI to evaluate my endometriosis, they are going to fill your every single orifice up with a fucking gel.

And let me tell you something about this process.

It's not painful at all. But my god I felt like one of those victorians who went to those doctors who didn't wash their hands to cure themselves of a flu with an enema. It is like reverse giving birth, if you're giving birth to Flubber. The female doctor that did this, and I appreciate the tact of having a female doctor but at this point how could I give a shit, it can't get any worse than this, was one of those that only speaks in diminutives and kept calling me fofinha the entire time, which I get, but I'm a 34 year old woman being flooded with get through every cavity of my body terrified I'm gonna shit myself in the tightest MRI machine I've ever seen because the purpose of this shit is to "relax your sphincter and swell your intestines" which sounds like I just developed IBS from one doctor's visit, and it really makes things awkward.

And then they tell me the catheter they put on me is not only to inject whatever the fuck they need, but also I might need some contrast too.

The contrast was the least of my issues. I didn't even feel it

Here's what else the lady failed to explain to me. She failed to explain that, since you're now full of some gel, it is going to come out. And oh boy.

Imagine the hospital gives you the shittiest sanitary pad imaginable, and what happens in the next hour you're on public transport heading home is basically you're giving birth to Flubber again. The thing isn't even sliding down your legs, it's all retained in the shitty diaper the hospital provided you.

"It's only an MRI" and you walk out with clots of gel in your underwear, slopping down your orifices, and this in your arm

Next time I'm drilling that bitch with questions

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gobusto · 10 months

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a fun fact about me is that our house didn't have a PC until i was about 14 -- and even then, it was shared by the whole family, and didn't have internet access for a while. my dad eventually signed up for AOL around 2001, at which point we were able to surf the web™ via a 56k dial-up connection.

however, we did have internet access prior to that… via our TV:

source: https://web.archive.org/web/20190407175637/https://www.digitalspy.com/tech/cable/a3171/ntl-cr2-interactive/

this gave us a (single, shared) email address, and access to an extremely limited number of websites, such as leisuredistrict or everyoneswelcome.

(as an aside: you could unlock "full" web access by paying an extra £5 per month, which we eventually did… but not before discovering that if someone emailed us a clickable link, we could access that site without going through the "proper" menu option!)

anyway, to compose emails, enter your leisuredistrict password, or write an everyoneswelcome post, you had to use the remote control:

source: https://web.archive.org/web/20190407173228/https://www.digitalspy.com/tech/cable/a3231/ntlhome-digital-interactive-tv/

as you can imagine this was slow and awkward. however, as the image above indicates, you could buy a special keyboard to make things easier. since my dad used to play chess via email (using a physical chess set next to the television), he ended up getting one:

source: https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/hm5pfa/these_ntl_keyboards_i_think_im_on_an_ntl/

as you might have noticed, it has a somewhat strange layout, and doesn't have a wire coming out of the back. that's because this keyboard is actually just a really big remote control; you put 4 AA batteries in the back, and it communicates with the set top box via infrared signals, just like the standard remote control would.

of course, our set top box eventually outlived its usefulness, and all of this stuff went into a storage cupboard, whereupon it was promptly forgotten about… until a few months ago, when i rediscovered the keyboard whilst my dad was clearing out some old things. as you might expect, i saved it from being sent to silicon heaven (where all the calculators go) because i am a goblin who hoards old technology.

i put it to one side for a while, but a few days ago i decided to see if it was still working. it turns out that regular webcams can pick up infrared light, so i put some batteries in it and -- success! -- several white-ish lights were visible in my laptop's webcam app whenever i pressed a key.

as such, i think it would be cool to somehow get this thing working as an actual PC keyboard. i might need to write a custom program to do this, though it seems that it might Just Work.

of course, i'd need some kind of infrared receiver device to do that, and those can be surprisingly tricky to find:

there are plenty of "infrared extender" cables online, but their USB connector is only used to draw power; they don't actually show up as a "device" on your PC.

you can apparently get infrared-receiver-to-headphone jack cables, which you're supposed to plug into a special socket on certain set top boxes… though in theory you could plug them into the microphone input port of a PC and "manually" decode the data signal via software trickery. (disclaimer: i am not an expert on Hardware, so this might be A Bad Idea, but i think that the 5V output by the microphone port would be enough to power the IR receiver…?)

the thing i actually want (an IR-to-USB device) might as well not exist because it is no longer 2005 and no-one on the planet except me gives even half a shit about connecting an IR device to a PC. well, that's not entirely true -- but the things i did find cost £30-£50, which is way above what i'd want to spend on something like this.

eventually, though, i discovered that the magic phrase to search for is "Media Center IR receiver" (or, more simply, "MCE receiver"), whereupon i found someone selling an Acer MCEIR-210 on ebay for just over £10. its due to arrive here within the next few days, so hopefully i can make this somewhat-unusual device function again.

#infrared #old tech #keyboard #old web #please read this post like its a Cathode Ray Dude video for maximum effect

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luffy81234 · 9 months

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Native Ads for Dating Sites and Apps: What You Need to Know

Let's face it: we're all inundated with advertisements nowadays. Whether we're browsing through our Facebook page, watching our favorite TV program, or simply strolling down the street, it feels like there's an ad attempting to sell us something around every corner.

And when it comes to dating apps and websites, there is no shortage of competing firms fighting for our attention. So, as an advertiser, affiliate, or brand marketer, how can you ensure that the dating app or website you're advertising stands out from the crowd? This post is for you whether you manage a dating website or are an affiliate marketer looking to focus on the dating sector.

Native advertising is one successful technique to market dating apps. Native advertising, by definition, is advertising that blends in with the rest of the content on a website or app. This involves producing advertisements that appear and feel like they belong alongside the material that consumers are seeing in the context of advertising dating services.

Benefits of Using Native Advertising for Promoting Dating Sites

Native advertisements are put on websites or applications in the context of online advertising and frequently take the form of article placements, video placements, or product recommendations. These ad units are meant to blend in with the surrounding content, making them more successful at attracting users' attention and boosting conversions than typical banner advertising.When it comes to online dating, there are several obvious advantages to employing native advertising.

Native advertisements may target the proper folks.

For starters, native advertising is extremely targeted. You may target potential users based on their hobbies, gadgets, websites they visit, and even geography when you use native advertisements to promote your dating site or app. This guarantees that your ad reaches the intended audience and that you are not spending time and money on advertising that will not be seen.

Native advertisements have been shown to be more effective than display advertisements.

Native advertising is extremely efficient. Because they blend in, they are less noticeable and hence more difficult to overlook. They are not the "in-your-face" advertisements that are not only forceful but also cringe-worthy.

According to studies, individuals are more likely to pay attention to and interact with native advertisements than with typical banner ads. So, if you want to attract more people to notice your dating site or app, native advertising is the way to go.

Native advertising is less invasive than traditional advertisements.

This ad type is less invasive than others, such as pop-ups or banner advertisements. Native advertising is less likely to irritate users or drive them to abandon the site since they blend in with the content of the site or app on which they appear. This implies you can keep your readers interested for a longer period of time, which can lead to more conversions.

Challenges of Native Advertising for Dating Sites and Apps

Of course, like with any kind of advertising, there are certain drawbacks to native advertising. They are as follows:

1. Ensuring that the ad is viewed by the intended audience.

With so many advertisements assaulting people from all directions, it can be tough to stand out. This is especially true for dating sites and apps, which are frequently vying for attention with a variety of other products and services.

2. Creating an excellent ad to promote the site or app.

A native advertisement must be properly constructed in order to serve its objective. It must be relevant and entertaining to the intended audience, and it must have a clear call to action.

3. Controlling expectations.

It is vital to note that native advertising is only one option for promoting a dating site or app. It is not a guarantee of success, and it should be utilized as part of a bigger marketing plan. Expecting too much from a native ad can lead to disappointment, so before commencing any campaign, set reasonable expectations.

How to Promote Dating Offers Using Native Ads

Several elements must be considered in order to properly market dating offerings utilizing native advertisements. Before we get into some of them and present real-world examples, let's talk about how to investigate your competitors' native advertisements.

Researching the Competition

Before launching a native advertising campaign for dating offers, It's critical to study how your competition is doing it. This will help you understand what's working well for them and what opportunities exist for you to differentiate your own campaigns.

Here are a few tips for conducting effective competitive research:

1. Begin by conducting a Google search or employing an ad spy program.

You may have a better idea of what works and what doesn't by employing a spy tool to look at how other advertisers are marketing dating offerings using native advertisements.

You may also examine which headlines and images are most commonly utilized and use that information to develop your own winning native ad campaign.

2. Examine their advertising budget.

Estimate how much they're spending on native advertising using tools like AdBeat, Anstrex, or SpyFu. This will give you an indication of how competitive the market is.

3. Examine their advertising locations.

Examine where their advertisements are running and find any prospective locations that you may target that they aren't currently using. In short, rather than battling with them head-on, why not exploit the gap?

Selecting a Source

When we mention source, we're referring to the websites where your advertising will appear. They are also known as placements and publishing applications or websites.

Native advertisements should come from high-quality websites and applications that are relevant to your target demographic. Look for sites with a significant audience of singles or those interested in dating when selecting a source for your dating offer ad.

One of the best sources for advertising your dating business with native ads is “7Search PPC”.

7Search PPC is a PPC advertising platform specializing in dating ads. It enables marketers to design and distribute tailored advertisements to a broad worldwide collection of search engines, directories, and partner websites. 7Search PPC provides a variety of targeting choices, such as region, demographics, and behavior. It also has powerful reporting and analytics features.

Conclusion

To summarize, native advertising may be a very successful way to promote dating sites. Advertisers can catch the attention of potential daters and push them to take action by employing appealing imagery and enticing language. Furthermore, because native advertising is less likely to be banned by ad blockers, they are an even more effective method for reaching users. Given all of this, it's evident that native advertising should be an important aspect of any dating site or app's marketing strategy.

#dating advertising #dating ads #dating advertisement #dating ad #ppc for dating #dating ad network #promoting dating sites and app #traffic for dating sites and apps

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episodegemspasses2024 · 1 year

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We all know that Episode Choose Your Story is a very fun game for you and yet you are hindred by the popping limitations that asks for your Gems to choose the best response on your character. If you don't spend money you can't possibly make the right response. Well, This is EpisodeGemVault.com will come to action, we will provide you the Gems need on your account without spending a single penny.

That's right! This service is 100% free and no need to download any kind of suspicious software, or modified APK files which you do not know if plugged with malicious code. With our anti-detection tool rest assured that your Episode account will never be tracked as you were only generating the gems you acquired.

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If you’re someone who loves to play interactive storytelling games, then you’ve likely already played Episode – Choose Your Story. Published by Episode Interactive, it’s one of the best interactive visual novels that you can play right now. If you’re not familiar with this type of game, interactive storytelling is a form of digital art where you get to participate in a storyline and its outcome. There are certain situations where you get to make decisions and the choice you make will affect the story.

It’s a great simulation game that features plenty of stories for you to get immersed in. And it will continue to have more stories since the game features a creation tool. This allows players to create their stories and publish them in the game for others to play. The publishers also consider other people’s submission to them to be incorporated into the game. This gives Episode hundreds of thousands of different stories that are constantly updated with new content.

But like any interactive story, Episode uses several resources, namely passes and gems. These two resources are important in the game and you’ll need them if you want to have a full experience. But these resources are limited and they’re not easy to get unless you’re going to spend money. Of course, you’d prefer not to spend money as much as possible. So, how will you acquire gems and passes for free, especially if you need a lot of them? This blog post will help you with that and provide tips on how to acquire these resources for free.

Where Do You Use Gems & Passes?

Before we discuss how to acquire resources for free in Episode – Choose Your Story, let’s first discuss where you use them. This will allow you to understand better why these resources are important and needed in the game. Gems are the resource that you need if you want to fully experience the story you’re reading or playing. This is because there are certain scenarios or choices that you can only select if you pay in Gems.

For example, in deciding on an outfit to wear to a ball later in the evening, there will be a premium outfit available for you to choose from. But on many occasions, this premium outfit will cost you gems to get. Nevertheless, that outfit is important to elicit a unique reaction from other important characters in the game. Another situation is when a certain choice needs to be unlocked with the use of gems to view a new scenario available. All of these also cost you Gems to continue. That is why you need Gems if you want a full experience of the story.

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episodegemspassesmod · 1 year

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[Episode Gems Passes Generator] 2023 ~(Episode Gems Passes Mod) Episode Gems Passes Android iOs

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Where Do You Use Gems & Passes?

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iampikachuhearmeroar · 1 year

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First of all seriously congrats on getting out of the spiral i understand how flabbergastingly difficult that is.

….that being said.. with as much the love and support I can share….

Please please please please next step- stop checking LI like that at all. Or like at all but ideal worlds etcetc It is not a safe place for anyone social interactions and active use can be a deterrent to potential employers as it shows mental instability and a dependency on social media etc etc businessbullshit

Take care you yourself please pretty please with a cherry and fun shaped sprinkles on top

You. Deserve. To. Rest. God. Damn. It.

Write it down in a notebook or notes app I know it’s hard to find the right Thing just please hang in there No more LI

I know I don’t know your situation you might need to be job hunting everyday to pay for medical bills or for whatever you may need -

just please be careful

And try to be kind to yourself please

hey hey! thanks for the support. I barely ever post on linkedin, only once or twice. I never share posts from other people either on there, either. I will occasionally like posts on there though.

I only had to make a linkedin account years ago in uni, bc the careers department basically bullies you to make one, to con you into thinking that that's the only way you'll be HEADHUNTED OMG!!!!.

but that's literally never happened to me.... and all I actually get on there is marketing emails for LI premium and learning (which is like $90 or something a month here in australia so I've never paid the sub) and scam courses from usually americans about resume writing etc but they want you to cough up $5,000 australian to do them.

I've always been super wary about linkedin in general, anyway. which is why I've barely ever posted on there, except for my uni graduation and when i started at my job last year. making my account for it back in 2016 during uni caused me to have an anxiety attack lmao. it's also why I'm happy I'm not checking it as often as well.

I had a year of rest in 2021 to heal from my surgery.... even though everyone was pushing me to "hurry up and get a job and move out and be an adult NOW!!!" including my surgeon. like guys. I just had some of the most traumatic 3 months of my life in my mid-20s. why the fuck would I want to be instantly back in the workforce????? holy fuck.

and plus, it did hit me while healing back then, a few times, how unwell and fragile I really was. because I bent down in woollies or coles (grocery stores here in aus) and couldn't get off the floor without grabbing onto something to balance myself. and that's when I started listening to the physios more in rehab hospital rather than my surgeon and everyone else, about taking it slow and healing... instead of trying to instantly jump back into casual or part time work in retail at the time; or even office work (since I learnt last year that stationary orders are, in fact, quite heavy when it's just boxes filled with packets and packets of paper; and other general office shit).

as for the medical bills, I don't have any to pay off since my surgery was completely covered by medicare. all I'm trying to avoid now in job hunting, is australia's incredibly punitive employment jobseeker income supplement payment requirements of meeting with a job provider each fortnight; and having to apply for 20 jobs a month or they'll take your payment off of you.... which is incredibly unhelpful when I need to pay my car loan and car insurance. although I'm pretty sure that's been updated but I can't remember how it's changed..... because I didn't need to worry about it last year whilst I was in my cadetship job since it was full time.

but yeah I just need to use LI as a way to look for jobs and maybe very occasionally interact with my old colleagues at my cadetship job (which I just left on the 23rd of march). but I am trying to interact with it less.

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eyedancer7a · 2 years

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"It's my birthday today and I promised myself that I would publish another chapter. So here we go, I hope you enjoy it! 😉🙂😊

"Presents, Snow and Mistletoe" by eyedancer7a

CHAPTER 2 - It’s You

Summary:

Paxton was having a blast coming up with various activities and surprises for Devi. He wanted to start off small, just enough to pique her interest. He didn’t want Devi thinking she had a mysterious stalker in her midst.

Or Devi starts to receive surprises from her Secret Santa.

Paxton found out that Dr. Vishwakumar always took Devi to the local coffee shop for a quick breakfast on Thursday, since clinic started early on those days. This would be a great time for her first small interaction with her Secret Santa. He spoke to the manager about wanting to leave a special treat for Devi.

He ordered a large hot chocolate with the word “latte” written on it. Devi told him once, “You can be taken seriously if people think you’re drinking coffee.” Of course, she’d rather have delicious goodness to wake her up instead of coffee.

Paxton also left her a doughnut to go with her surprise hot chocolate. Who doesn’t like doughnuts? He remembered Devi ranting that she would rather be eating that scrumptious sweet treat than being at Ganesh Puja itself.

He thought about how stunning Devi looked in her traditional turquoise and gold sari that day. He had been quite surprised to see Devi kicking her locker in frustration since she was so beautifully dressed.

Devi stepped up to the counter to place her order. She had to remember to order a large black coffee for her mother. “Hey I remember you! You’re secret hot chocolate/latte girl!” exclaimed the barista. “You’re Devi right?” He proceeded to hand her the two coffees and the doughnut. Devi shook her head stating, “I didn’t order this.”

The barista handed her a bright green and red note with the message,

To: Devi

“Some Sweetness for Someone Sweet.”

From Your Secret Santa.

Devi was floored that someone was nice enough to give her a treat! Was this kind of like pay it forward, she thought? She was even more surprised that her Secret Santa left a large black coffee too. Did someone really care enough about me to bring me a little joy?

Watching from the window, Paxton saw the happiness and surprise on Devi’s face. He wanted her to feel cared for. And the joy on her face made him feel happy too!

Devi couldn’t wait to get to school to tell Eleanor and Fabiola about her Secret Santa. Devi ran down the hall dodging students left and right. She waved her arms around trying to get her besties’ attention. She finally came across Eleanor and Fabiola gossiping about last night’s episode of “Riverdale.” Devi began to tell them about the mysterious incident that she’d experienced that morning.

“You will not believe what happened at the coffee shop today,” Devi exclaimed. Fab and El listened carefully to Devi recount the tale. “Who do you think would have left me this special surprise?” They couldn’t think of anyone that could have done this nice deed. But they were also ecstatic for Devi and the mystery behind her Secret Santa.

____________________________

The first period bell rang loudly as Devi and the rest of her classmates settled in for another boring lecture by Mr. Shapiro. Being an AP history teacher, Mr. Shapiro pushed his students to think outside of the box. He enjoyed assigning group projects. Paxton had already partnered with Devi twice this semester which had given him a chance to spend more time with her, even if it was just to do schoolwork.

He had apologized to Devi previously for not contributing more to their project with the Bunkr App. She had done most of the work for the project and of course Mr. Shapiro knew it and that’s why only she got an “A” for the presentation. Paxton wanted to prove to her that he wasn’t a dumb jock. He knew the importance of working hard and being a committed team player.

Lately, Paxton was more focused in school with Devi’s help. He strove to be a better version of himself because of Devi. He deserved to get into a good college, and not only for his swimming abilities. He wanted so much more for his life. Paxton wanted to go to college and have a career. Devi told him “that everyone deserves to follow their dreams and reach their goals.”

Mr. Shapiro needed to put the class into to several groups for their next project. Mr. Shapiro divided the students by putting them groups by their “birthday months”. “The first six people with birthdays in January, February, March and April are in group one,” he stated. “Group two can have students with birthdays in May, June, July and August." "The final group can will have students with birthdays months ending in "ber”, he laughed out loud.

All the members of the first group were standing near each other and Devi immediately grabbed a hold of Eleanor and Fabiola since they had birthdays in February, March and April. Fab couldn’t help reach for Eve to be in the group too since Eve’s birthday was in April like hers.

The gods were looking after Paxton that day! His birthday was in January so he lucked out again since he was placed in the same group with Devi.

Eleanor asked, “Trent when is your birthday?” He answered with a big grin on his face, “ I guess I’m in your group too since my day is in March.”

Devi was so excited that she ended up in a group with her besties. Of course, Devi beamed with joy when she heard that Paxton was going to be in her group again! He too was excited about getting to spend more time with her.

The group had a week to complete this project and they all had to contribute to the presentation. No slackers allowed here! Only over-achievers welcome!

The group spent every day after school on the project. They even found themselves eating lunch together just to perfect their ideas. They started to get to know each other better. Not just their ideas, but stories about their lives.

Devi had the best stories to share with the group. She had Paxton and Trent laughing so much they had tears in their eyes. Devi was never embarrassed about her adventures, and her personality made everyone gravitate toward her.

Paxton was having such a wonderful time with everybody that he forgot they were doing schoolwork.

Devi was so busy working on this project that it did not occur to her that she hadn’t heard from her Secret Santa in a few days. This didn’t bother Devi since she was having a blast working with the gang, especially Paxton. The happiness she felt working with her friends made her forget that her dad was not around to share in her happiness.

_______________________

Mr. Shapiro gave the group project a “A+”. He said the creativity from this group was “spectacular”! A jealous Ben rolled his eyes at the compliments that his teacher and his fellow classmates gave the group.

Paxton was so excited! Not even Ben Gross’s expression could bring him down off the high he was riding. The group killed their presentation! They had the entire classroom cheering and laughing, but most of all they had presented the subject material well.

He was walking tall, head held high with his chest pumped up. He was so proud of this accomplishment. Paxton had never received such a grade before in his life. He wanted to celebrate this win with these amazing people. He thought to himself, “These awesome people are my friends!”

The rest of the school day, every time Trent and Paxton saw each other, they would do a funny fist bump dance together. It reminded Devi of an endzone touchdown dance minus the spiked football. Everytime Trent saw the Coyote Girl, he howled, which made Devi giggle and smile.

Devi was waiting for her English class to start when she noticed a text message on her phone, but she didn’t recognize the number.

All of sudden her face became flushed when she noticed the message was from her Secret Santa.

Her Secret Santa congratulated her for nailing the group assignment with flying colors. How did her Secret Santa know about the presentation? Could they have been in her very own history class?

News travels fast around Sherman Oaks High. The gossiping network in the school could do some amazing things!

Devi’s Secret Santa sent her a Spotify link to enjoy some holiday music. All of the songs on the playlist were chosen to help her remember the joy, cheer, and love during this time of the year. The text message read

CONGRATULATIONS ON A JOB WELL DONE ON YOUR GROUP PROJECT IN FACING HISTORY!

To: Devi

Presents, Snow and Mistletoe Playlist

Please enjoy some holiday musical selections to help spread love, happiness, joy, and cheer during this special time of the year.

Click on the Spotify link here to begin listening to “Presents, Snow and Mistletoe”

“There are love songs on this list!” exclaimed Devi. Could someone have romantic feelings for me? No way! She was excited to start listening to these professions of love and cheer. Devi still could not believe these songs that were specifically chosen for her!

Notes:

I know it’s a stretch about the song choice. I couldn’t find a Christmassy LOVE song with hot chocolate in it.

Hot chocolate and lingerie

Sweet kisses and rainy days

That mistletoe love can't explain it

Ornaments Make your eyes light up right away

Smile running across your face

That mistletoe love can't explain it so….- It’s You by Jordin Sparks

Thank you for continuing this journey with Devi and her Secret Santa! ❤❤❤

#devi vishwakumar #paxton hall yoshida #eleanor wong #fabiola torres #eve hjlem #Adam Shapiro #trent harrison #fanfiction #daxton fanfic

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summonerscenarios · 3 years

Note

So, mc adopting at least one of each of the Child mobs, how would that go?

IT MAY BE 4AM BUT THAT'S NEVER STOPPED ME BEFORE LETS DO SOME MF HCS.

Sadly I was only able to work on two of the mob kiddos as I didn't want this to get too long but I still hope its okay~!

Also just a heads up a lot of this is a pure waffle of information based on my own interpretations of the mobs so here's hoping I did a good job with them lmao.

---------

It wouldn’t have been the first time you’d ended up inadvertently adopting someone, nor will it be the last knowing your luck. It’s not like you intentionally do anything to draw people to you, it just so happened that the things that you did and situations you got wrapped up in led to you getting to know all kinds of people in the process. And those people saw you in all kinds of ways - most saw you as friends, others saw someone else in you, more than a few made no attempts to hide their blatant flirting - and, rarely, a few would even see you as a role model,a mentor or parental figure to look up to.

You honestly have no idea why, after all, it’s not as though you go out of your way to make particularly responsible decisions (if anything, you get yourself in enough trouble that you’d imagine you’re anything but a role model) but a lot of the younger transients and students seem to flock towards your presence, looking for comfort, advice, or just someone who respects them. At first it was just the younger members of your guild that you technically took under your wing - as the Guildmaster you assumed it was only natural to look out for them, and you’d long gotten used to protecting Agyo and Kijimuna, wanting to make sure that the only thing they had to worry about was having the chance to be kids rather than getting dragged into the Guild’s app-based affairs. It’s not like responsible parental figures are easy to come by in this world of app-battles and fighting, so that’s perhaps why when you start taking a more protective, nurturing role with the younger ones that more of them begin popping up.

Surprisingly, the ghosts are some of the first mob children that you noticed began flocking towards you. Roaming spirits are unusual but certainly not rare, and it honestly breaks your heart a little to see so many young ghosts lingering around in the unexplored corners of the city, searching for one thing or another. Things feel...off, for a while before you can pin down the issue - you start feeling as though you’re being watched when you’re in the guildhouse by someone other than your teammates, and when your attempts to shake off the uneasy feeling doesn’t work, you decide to bring it up to your fellow Guild members in case it’s someone trying to spy. You want to make sure it’s not someone who can bring danger to the guild, but you don’t have much of a chance to set up a search of the building when the D-evils come tottering into your field of view, screeching up a storm and motioning towards an otherwise unassuming corner of the window.

Turns out you weren’t the only one noticing the other presence, as Shiro’s D-evils seem to have picked up on it to - and when your attention snaps over to the window to see what they’re pointing to you barely catch a glimpse of the flickering figure of a ghost child as they disappear from view. From that point on you start spotting the child more often - he’s shy or wary, always lingering someone just out of the corner of your eye but never getting any closer almost like he’s afraid. He seems to have taken an interest in you though, especially whenever the younger guild members come around to spend time at the guild, and it isn’t long before you notice that he’s intently watching the way you watch over and care for the kids of the guild - he looks almost sad in these instances, but never dares to get any closer and disappears as soon as you turn to look at him. Over time it becomes almost normal to have a resident ghost at the guild (though Agyo still shudders at the mention of ghosts despite having seen the kid plenty of times since arriving). He seems to be more at ease after a while of watching you, and things finally come to a head one day when you’re playing videogames with Hanuman and the other kids, noticing that the little ghost has wandered far closer than he’d ever done in the past, watching the small screen setup on the floor with an avid interest that seems far happier than the forlorn looks he’d had before. Taking a chance you tilt your head to look over at the ghost child, motioning him to come over and join; he disappears for a moment, startled, but right as you start to worry you may have scared the kid off he rematerializes, inching hesitantly closer and closer till he’s hovering beside the rest of your group, eyes fixed to the characters on screen with a child-like wonder.

You aren’t quite sure how this ended up with you adopting the ghost child yourself. It’s just one day you were talking about how you were pretty much adopted by the teachers at school and how you’d like to pay it forward some day, and the next you were talking about ‘son’ this, and ‘might as well take the kid under your wing’ that - you were practically acting like an impromptu parent for like a fifth of the people you knew anyway, so what was actually adopting a child? Toji had just about choked to death when you’d made the unfortunate decision to announce that fact mid-drink, and Shiro spent more than his fair share of time probing you with the legal questions surrounding a student adopting a child, ghost transient or not. Ryota seems incredibly excited by the idea however, gushing about being an uncle and wondering if your new son can eat and if so what his favorite food is - plenty of questions for a later time.

Ghost is certainly the most clingy of the children you end up adopting, and it’s clear from the get go in the sense that the poor little one is essentially glued to your side from the moment you take the venture to actually adopting him. With few things remaining in the physical world to cling onto, the familial bond is something that the little one cherishes and he absolutely refuses to budge on letting it, and by proxy, you, go. For a while he actually fears you’re going to leave him and take back what you said about protecting him and being a good parent. He of course had parents once, and their lack of presence at his side now paints a tragic picture no matter what way you look at it, so the kids got more than a few attachment issues you need to work through. Ghost doesn’t really talk too much, instead relying on gestures and interacting with things around him to talk to you and others - it takes a little bit to get used to if you’re unfamiliar with some of the gestures but it’s easy to pick up as time goes on.

Definitely one of the more well behaved children of the bunch, given that once you’ve convinced him that you’re not abandoning him he’s dead set on making you proud. He gets antsy when you’re not around, spending most of his time at the guild when you're at classes, but he takes to following Agyo around instead during these times. Agyo’s more than a little startled at first, and is a bit awkward about the whole situation as he processes it, but before long Agyo’s not only getting along with your ghostly son, but he’s also teaching him the ‘lion dog duties’ that he’s been teaching you - you’ll never quite forget walking in to Agyo giving the poor kid a detailed rundown on the upkeep of the guildhouse and all that it pertains.

It was supposed to only be the one child, you swear, but damn if you haven’t got a bleeding heart and a knack for attracting trouble. Word travels around fast about your adoption, and as more people learn about your impromptu push to parenthood people start coming to you for help - namely, kids with nowhere else to go. Maybe it’s your bleeding heart or savior complex, but before long one kid becomes two, and then two becomes three, and soon enough you’ve got four kids on your hands.

There’s no denying that things get a little bit rocky when you start taking in other children. Despite the other kids in the guild, Ghost has technically been the only child up to this point, and with your attention shifting from both him and the other children at once it’s a sudden change - one that you thankfully discussed with him first to make sure he was okay. Even with the okay though, Ghost is more than a little anxious when you bring the second child, a nether sprite, ‘home’, especially because of how loud she is by comparison. Nether sprite is an absolute ball of energy and mischievous to boot, so she more than makes for an interesting parallel to the otherwise quiet Ghost you’ve been taking care of the past few months.

She’s a handful, especially during the first few weeks that she’s settling in - it takes her a while to really start seeing the place as home, and even longer for her to even consider you a parental figure (she’s seen you as more of a babysitter till you proved you were willing to stick around and put the effort in to be a good parent). Once she does settle in however she takes to the place quickly, and, to your surprise, your two kids become thick as thieves. The Nether sprite catches on quickly to how Ghost communicates, and given his penchant to linger around those he’s close to and follow them around she’s more than happy to drag him all over the shop from one activity to another - it’s a surprising development but one you actively encourage. Unfortunately as I mentioned she’s still mischievous, though tones it down from anything too troublesome if it’ll cause you too much grief.

However that hasn’t stopped the amount of times you’ve gotten calls from someone about the kind of trouble you two little ones have wound up getting themselves into - looks like they both picked up your knack for getting intentionally and unintentionally dragged into the weirdest events (sure, it’s fun when you do it, but having your kids doing it only serves to give you grey hairs from the stress.) And things only get crazier once the other kids end up coming along, for both better and worse - but that’s a story for another time.

#tokyo afterschool summoners #housamo #housamo mob #housamo ghost #housamo sprite #housamo lantern #housamo nether sprite #request #ask #gzgs222-blog #first post in....hooo boy #a WHILE #i think im a little rusty so please bear with me while i get back on track #i will probably do one for the ciramantep and jiangshi in the future #but for now we got the ghost and the lantern #a fitting combo lmao

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be-ready-when-i-say-go · 3 years

Text

Christmas at the Hoods

You escape your family by going home with Calum to Australia for the holiday. And the escape is necessary, but at the end of it, you’re reminded that sometimes family is chosen rather than given.

Reader Insert. Fluff a little bit of angst. You just a perfect amount of tear your heart out but then put it back like nothing ever happened.

CW: Death of a parent, strained family relationships.

Enjoy my masterlist.

Support me on KoFi

__________________________________________

You stare down at the text from your mother. Are u coming home for Christmas? The truth is--no, you don’t want to come home. Home is too stiff, reminds you just how much you don’t fit. And maybe it’s just you, you thinking that you won’t ever live up to their expectations of what your life should be like, and maybe it’s not fair to them. But given all that, you still don’t want to subject yourself to that awful feeling, the squirming in your spot wondering how long is appropriate for you to stay before you dip the family pretend bonding.

You don’t want to go home. But you don’t have an excuse not to go. You sigh and place your phone face down on the counter. Ice clinks around in the glass that Calum sets down in front of you. Over the speakers faintly, you hear the twang and kick of guitar as Carla Thomas sings her conversation with an imagined other. At Christmas time, Calum gave you control over the speakers whenever you come over. He liked the Christmas music you had saved and even if he didn’t always get full on decorations the music helped the holiday feel a bit more real for the time you were over at least.

“What’s wrong?” he asks. “That had to be the heaviest sigh I’ve ever heard.”

“My mom,” you reply, unlocking your phone and showing him the text. “I can’t exactly say, ‘No, I don’t have any plans. But I don’t feel like pretending to care so I won’t be coming home.’ Wouldn’t go over nicely.”

Calum stares down at the text. The exchange previous to this was a Happy Thanksgiving text that you replied to and prior to that it seems like the conversation was just your mother updating you about the changes she was making to the home office. To which you only replied with ‘Pretty!’ but nothing more. He always suspected you and your family weren’t that close. You talked pretty highly of your dad, but he passed away a couple years ago. And you and your mother just didn’t click. Any sort of sustained interaction always seemed to go south. He just hadn’t had a clue just how sort you kept your conversations with your mother.

He had plans to go home to Australia. His sister was flying in too, the first time he wouldn’t have to split his Christmas vacation time between London and Sydney. Calum knew for sure that Luke was going home to Australia too. He wasn’t sure about Michael, though if previous years proved to be any sort of pattern, Michael would be spending Christmas with his partner’s family. Ashton seemed to be tentatively planning spending New Years in Australia at the very least. Sure you had other friends but given the holiday, he suspected that they might be traveling home or spending time with their families.

“Come with me to Australia,” he offers.

“You leave in a week, tops? The cost of that ticket on it’s own is going to be fucking awful.” You take your phone as it’s handed back over, but you only focus in on him. There was no way he was serious about an offer like that. There was no way he was getting a roundtrip ticket for you under three grand. Tickets for that kind of travel months in advance were easily a grand or more. So there was no way Calum could guarantee a ticket for you round trip in a week for a reasonable price.

“I always told you I was going to take you home with me one of these days,” he counters. “Show you those Sydney streets I grew up on.”

You laugh at the way he bobs with his fists in front of his face like a boxer in the middle of the ring. “Yeah, when we could both plan it out and I could at least pay for my own airfare. I can’t Cal. I appreciate it and you. But that’s too soon and I can’t have you dropping money like that on me such short notice.” You take the glass from the counter and spin around in the barstool before traveling to the couch.

Calum drops his arms and follows behind. He’s not worried about money. That’s nothing. “I can’t leave you alone for the holidays. I know going home would just be rough right now. I’d-I’d come with you if you wanted.”

“Oh my god, Calum, no. Go home. You haven’t seen your mom and dad in ages. I’ll be okay.”

“If I cancel I can still get a voucher for another time,” he offers and settles onto the ottoman in front of you.

“Go home. See your parents. Give them a hug. Fucking hell, I’m not worth canceling a trip over. I’ll suffer through this Christmas like I have every other Christmas.”

With a tap to your knee, Calum shakes his head. “My friend absolutely cannot spend Christmas miserable. I won’t have it.”

You shake your head. It’s not like you haven’t had to spend every other CHristmas miserable--what’s one more to the list? Calum looks to the coffee table and spies his phone. He stretches out for it. This would be embarrassing to admit. He wasn’t going to do it like this. In all actuality, he had meant to ask you last week. But you had to out of town for a conference. He hadn’t realized the conference was this late in the year but it was one that you had been trying to get into for years, so when you landed the opportunity, Calum knew you’d take it in a heartbeat.

You take hold of the phone as it’s handed to you. “What’s this?” You ask but Calum remains silent and you glance down to the phone to see it opened to an app. “Why am I staring at trip information?”

“It’s because I bought two round trip tickets,” he returns.

“What do you mean you bought two tickets?”

“One of those is for you. If you want to go.”

You drop his phone into your lap and push to the edge of the seat. “When the hell did you buy these tickets?”

“A couple months ago. I knew the holidays were always a little rough for you.” He shrugs. “At least you won’t have to lie to your mum now.”

“Calum you are the most insane person I’ve ever met and I’ve lived with myself for a while now. When the fuck were you going to tell me?”

“I had plans to last week. But I remembered you were going out of town for that conference and I wanted you to focus on that since you had to present and be on a panel too.”

“How fucking early do I need to wake up?” you asks.

“I-I figured you come over the day before, sleep over and then I’d drive us to the airport.”

“It’s summer in Australia right now, correct?” He nods at your question. “Beaches?”

“If you wanna go, sure.”

“Do I get to say that I’m being kidnapped for Christmas?”

“If you really want to phrase it like that.”

“I’m in,” you agree and Calum smiles, wrapping his arms around you as you fall into him in a hug. “Thanks, Cal.”

“Of course,” he returns softly. He’d do anything for you, or just about anything if he’s honest. You matter to him and even if he does have to kidnap you for the holidays, he’s happy to do it if it means you won’t be miserable.

A couple hours go by and you head home, now having to start packing for the holiday trip with Calum. As you sit on the floor in front of your suitcase, you pick up your phone. You aim to go the weather app and see what it’s like in Sydney right now. But the text notification from your mom still lingers on the messages app. You tap on it and reply. No, Mom, sorry. Going to visit Australia for Christmas.

Who’s in Australia?

Calum’s family is there.

Who’s Calum? Is that the boy you talk about in the band?

“Fuck,” you mutter, realizing there were two ways this could go. You hadn’t ever really talked about your friends with your mother. Your dad knew and he filled her in a little bit, but even still you didn’t tell him a lot before he died. Mostly because you were afraid. What would happen if you told him everything and you needed help and he died? He’d be the only one to know and then he’d be gone. You’d have no one. So you told him half of everything. You told him about the band and some of your friends and you told him that you were doing okay. But you didn’t tell him that you were finally starting to figure what what you were meant to be doing on this earth. You didn’t tell him that you were dating around. Your dad only knew half the truth and now you realized all he could tell was half your truth to your mother. He could only convey what he knew and your mother didn’t always listen too well. She always got into her head what she wanted to hear and that’s the version she went with.

You can almost imagine your mother now, sitting on her couch tapping at the screen of her phone with one finger and looking up to the kitchen where your dad would usually be--and here, she would call out to your dad to ask Do you know about this Calum fella? They ever talk to you about ‘im? And your dad would reply in some sorts clipped and in half truths, Yeah, they’re friends or something. He’s got a good head on his shoulders from what I could tell. Because that what your dad would always say about any of your friends, that they always had a good head on their shoulders because he trusted you.

Your dad told you once that he said they always had a good head on their shoulders because you had a good head on yours and you’d never be friends with anyone that didn’t match morals like yours. He knew you’d never get mixed up in something that you couldn’t see yourself out of because he had raised you, because he had to trust you now; his fears couldn’t stand in the way of you living your life.

If you could tell your dad the whole truth, you would. You would tell him the first year after his diagnosis you lost yourself. You’d tell him that Calum had found you more than once on the edge of something dark and secured you to his chest for nights on end. He’d take you the studio with you just so you wouldn’t be alone. You’d tell your dad about the times you cooked all his favorites just so your house smelt of him. You’d tell him that even though you and your mother fought and you felt like you were always at arm’s length with some family, you always loved him. You’d tell him everything in full detail so that when he died, he would die knowing fully.

Yeah, you start typing to reply to your mother’s question, he’s the guy in the band.

Enjoy. But you should see family during this season too. Remember the ones that have been with you through thick and thin.

You don’t respond to the text. More than half of your mom’s side didn’t show up to the funeral. They never liked your dad all too much and you were slowly uncovering why. But no matter the reasons, it hurt. It hurt to walk with your mother down the aisle of that church to the funeral procession and seeing a halfway empty church because her side hadn’t supported the marriage. Your father was dead and the least they could do was show up to a fucking funeral. There’s no thick or thin in that, just them.

Another text buzzes through your phone. It’s from your aunt, on your dad’s side. We’re loving the pj’s! Nana’s rocking the new slippers and everything. Take care and rest. Wanna come by for New Years? We may be old but we can still keep up!

You laugh at the photo of your grandmother, sleeping as she sits on the couch, bundling up in the robe you also ordered for her. The new slippers are almost falling off her feet. That’s keeping up if I’ve ever seen it, you return. I might come by a little after New Years but I’ll bring the wine--you just bring the chips and dip. Going out of town for a little bit.

No worries! We’ll see you then. Chips and dip are stocked. Don’t you worry. Enjoy!

There’s a twinge--you almost want to stay just for them. But nothing feels the same anymore if you’re honest. When you hang out with your dad’s side of the family, there’s a hole. His seat is way too empty, even if you sit in. There’s no one to joke around. Your grandmother has no one to pass on her list of chores too besides finding people in town to help her with. And it’s not the same. They don’t laugh when she hands it over. They don’t joke that they only had a son just so he could do all the house repairs, or lawnmower repairs.

It has to be hard for them too. It’s all around just not a great time. But then in your peripherals you see your halfway packed suitcase, the swimsuits you’ve rolled up and tucked into one of the mesh pouches. Was this running? Or was this healing? Was going all the way to Australia just an escape? Maybe it was all three, but it was running into an escape but on the other side, there was some healing in it too. You continue packing, pulling out some loungewear and figuring how many pairs of jeans to include on this trip too.

You feel silly in your sneakers and leggings as more people filter into the terminal area from TSA in bulky coats. But Calum’s dressed roughly the same next to you, only in a t-shirt and sweatpants. Your phone shakes in your hands. Let me know when you land, your mother requests in the text.

Will do.

“Do your parents know I’m coming?” you asks, suddenly remembering that you will be in their place for three weeks.

“They know,” Calum returns, slouching down in the chair. “Trust me. Mum keeps asking me if you have any food allergies or dietary restrictions. And everytime I answer, she asks if I have checked in with you recently about it. And I have a feeling if you suddenly sprouted some new allergy, I would know by now.”

“That’s how moms are,” you laugh.

“Don’t be surprised if you find your favorite snacks just chilling in the kitchen.”

The thought of Joy going out of her way to find out via Calum about your favorite snacks and to only have them just in her cabinets or pantry makes you laugh but deeper than that you feel touched, chest warming just a little at the thought that she’d do something above and beyond. You slouch down to match Calum and rest your head onto his shoulder. “Is your childhood bedroom still embarrassing?”

A soft exhale of laughter pushes through Calum’s chest. “No, not too embarrassing anymore. Some of the posters are still up and mum’s changed the bedding for sure. A few of my things are tucked into the closet. But Mum’s said she’s been going through things in the house slowly so maybe she’s put more things on display just to set me up.”

You nod. “I imagine there are going to be lots of sports posters.”

“Ding, ding, ding,” Calum chimes, resting his cheek on your head. “I was supposed to be the sports kid. I mean, I was the sports kid for a really long time.”

“Then you found out you had those pipes,” you laugh, tapping on his chest.

“Yeah, then I realized music was a thing. Mali used to blast R&B and I mean blast it. But she’s always had great taste in music so it was never like the songs were bad. They were just loud. Sometimes I’d stay with Michael for as long as I could. Not that I didn’t want to be home, I just wanted to save my ears for a little bit before Mali and Dad would take over.”

“Your dad sings?”

“He’ll tell you only a little bit. But yeah, he sings.”

“So it’s a family trait!” you laugh. “A long line of singers.”

“Mum would disagree with you.”

You glance down and look at the initials inked into his skin. You brush your thumb over Joy’s. You had only heard about her. Once you saw her. Calum was calling home when you dropped by unplanned. It was quick, you waved at her from his computer but mostly you hang around in the kitchen, petting Duke as he wrapped up the call. From the way he talks about her, you know he’s close to his family. You know being away from home is hard sometimes for him. You’ve talked to Mali more, caught Calum a few times FaceTiming her too, or meeting her when she visited LA for his birthday. You know about his Dad too. Haven’t met him yet, but you’ve seen him when you watched the ARIA’s one year and he dad popped up in the crowd while the band performed. You screencapped the moment and send it as a reaction photo to Calum whenever he shares good news. You’re sure he must be sick of it, but he never says anything about your habit.

“There’s a little shop not too far from the house. I used spend hours to looking at all the trinkets. I think you’d like it,” he admits quietly.

“Yeah, I’d be down for that.”

“But first, there will be food,” he laughs just as the speakers overhead crackle to life and the voice faintly reminds everyone of the boarding procedure. You can Calum both stand, slinging backpacks onto your shoulders as you want for them to call group one to board. “Lots of food.”

“I’m ready,” you return.

Sleep on the plane isn’t all that restful, but you take it in stride though you manage to make progress in your book. Halfway through the flight, Calum holds out one of his earbuds to you. “You’ll like it,” he urges and you take the bud placing it into your ear.

Somewhere between the songs that Calum plays and the movie you’re not fully paying attention to, sleep claims you once again. And you let it hold you well past the light layer of sleep you had the first time. Sleep lays claim to you, holding you deeply into its grasps. You only find yourself waking up when the lights on the plane lift just a little and it breaks through your lashes and Calum shakes you awake. The two of you climb from your seats, backpacks on shoulders and wind through the airport to baggage. Thanks to the cat and dog luggage tags you bought, spotting your and Calum’s luggage is easy. Calum easy snatched the cartoon dog but you didn’t put up a fight. You let him have it, especially since it looked slightly reminiscent of Duke.

As you gather your luggage, you hear a voice from behind you. Calum turns to the sound of it immediately, his hand leaving the handle of his suitcase. You grab it for him and watch him, hearing his laughter escape him, as he runs up to his mother. “Mum,” he laughs, “hey!”

The hug looks bone crushing, only the hug a mom can give that even if it shouldn’t be tight is tight because there’s nothing like the squeeze. “Oh, my boy,” she grins. It lights up her whole face and you stand, just behind them, a couple feet off, both suitcases in front of you.

Joy spots you and the grin grows brighter. She releases Calum and shuffles up to you, arms still opened wide. “Hi! Look at you,” she greets. You immediately step out from the luggage. She’s warm and taller than you imagined as you hug her. She gives you a squeeze and your eyes water just a little. There’s something to the embrace that makes your chest tight and you find yourself clinging a little tighter to her too as she runs on about how late it is, and how hungry and tired you both must be. She keeps you close, an arm around your shoulders, hand splayed across your back. Joy pinches Calum’s cheek and wraps her other arm around his waist.

“C’mon, c’mon,” she urges. “David’s with the car. But I just couldn’t wait to see you both. Oh, it’s so good.”

Even as you exiting the plane it shocked you just how bright in the day it was still. But when you look down at your phone you realize you’re almost a whole day ahead, now standing in the middle of the afternoon, as if you somehow only flew a few hours instead of half the day. Calum’s dad is not parked too far from the entrance. As the three of you approach, he runs up some of the way with a large smile. “Aye!” he laughs, hands clapping Calum on the back. “Look at you!” “I swear I haven’t gotten any taller, Dad.”

“Coulda fooled me,” David returns. “Now,” he laughs, pointing to you. “I heard you got dragged along. Did ya put up a fight?”

“Less of a drag, more a kidnapping,” you return but step into the embrace with a laugh.

“Next time, next time, you’ll go a couple rounds with him, right?”

You nod. “Yeah, next time.” You don’t know if it’s going to be a next time but the idea sounds nice. Calum and David load up the suitcase into the trunk before all four of you slip into the car--you and Calum in the back.

“Hope they haven’t scared you off,” Calum whispers to you. You shake your head, mouth opening to say more but then David pipes up from the front seat. You almost don’t catch what he says, but Joy and Calum respond, so you stay quiet with a bit of a nod and watch the lights fade behind you as you travel down the streets. You make sure to text your mother that you arrived safely.

Calum’s room isn’t so bad, like he figured. Though you do almost wish there were a few more embarrassing posters on the wall. No sooner than the two of you can slip bags off and get out of shoes, a knock sounds from the door. It’s Joy, peeking her head inside. “Calum knows this, but you’re free to whatever’s in the house to munch on. I think there’s a few beer already cold too. But,” she waves her hand a little as if dismissing the thought. “either way, whatever’s there, you’re welcome to take.”

“Thank you, Ms. Hood.”

“Joy, call me Joy.”

“Thank you, Joy.” She nods and then slips back out of the room.

“They’ll be like that for another couple of days, but don’t mind them.” Calum shows you were the linen’s closet is and where the bathroom is too. “If you wanna shower first, I’ll whip up some snacks.”

“Oh, that’s some hard work putting together some snacks.”

He glares at you, throwing a towel at your head. You manage to duck it though it does land on your shoulder. You laugh as he flips you off and then heads to the kitchen. You head back to the room and grab a different set of clothes. It takes a moment to get the water right but you keep the shower as short as you can and slip into the clean clothes.

You return to the kitchen and find Calum with a plate of various chips, fruit snacks, and a small section of meat and cheeses out. He cracks open a beer just as you pad into the kitchen. “Want one?” he asks, but you decline the offer.

“It’s cozy,” you say softly looking around the living room and kitchen of the house. Even Calum’s room teleports you. You’re not sure where just yet, and even though it’s obviously a whole different continent there’s something about the house, about seeing Calum’s family so visibly happy to have him back home and the genuine smiles that feels like a warm blanket straight from the dryer. It envelopes you.

Calum shrugs a little. To him, it’s just familiar and a tad foreign. Like he can’t remember if the paintings are the same ones from his last visit but the pictures of him and Mali have never changed. The family vacation photos still line the walls too--unwavering it seems even against all of his mum’s decorating attempts. “Once Mali comes into town, it’ll feel complete,” he states. You wonder how any of this could feel incomplete, but don’t voice that curiosity.

Calum runs up to shower next and in the middle of your munching, Joy returns to the kitchen too. “I’m surprised you’re still standing upright.”

“Oh I could fall over at any point. Keep an eye out.”

Leaning into the counter she nods. “Time zones are killer. I’d say try to make it through as much of today as you can and then zoink out later on. Might be easier to adjust to the time that way.”

“I’m hoping,” you say.

“Calum told me you went to a conference last week. How’d that go?”

“It went well. Slight tech issues with my presentation but we managed to pull through unscatched after that.” You talk a little bit more about it, but are aware that you feel like you're rambling. When you ask her a few questions, she’s more than willing to answer them but she keeps them short and instead asks you more questions too.

“As the best friend, I feel like I need embarrassing material. Do you have photos of baby Calum?” you ask after a bit.

“Of course I do. He asked for some for a video once and I scanned over the most neutral ones. But if you want embarrassing photos, I got ‘em,” she laughs, wiping the salt off her fingers from a chip and waving for you to follow her.

Calum returns the sound of laughter and you cooing about something, he thinks you might’ve mentioned chubby cheeks and he knows without a doubt it’s him. “If you are going to embarass me I’d like to be in the room,” he states, seeing the photo album open on your lap. He steps to the arm of the couch you’re near and watches you flip through a few pages. You pause at a couple and pull your phone out to snap a few pictures of the picture. He doesn’t miss the several messages still lingering on your notification screen from your mother.

It’s over dinner that Joy suggest putting the tree up over the weekend, since Mali will be in town at that point too. No one objects to this plan and the latter half the week you and Calum spend mostly trying to adjust to the time change, though Calum seems to be having an easier go of it than you. Mali is licked up from the airport and you linger behind knowing that there’s not quite enough space for all three of you in the seat. It’s a little strange to be lingering around in Calum’s old room at his mum’s house but it’s not to bad. You take in all the sports posters, notice some medals and trophies still hanging around to otherwise bare shelves. Among them are some photos too--mostly of Calum and the guys. A few of some people you’ve never seen before and you assume they’re friends from soccer, or other sports along the way.

The sound of laughter echoes around you. Though you do hold onto one photo of Calum. He’s in a jersey, arms thrown over the shoulders of two other boys. They smile wide and big at the camera. The grassy fields hold blurry people and you like to imagine in that blur there are parents hugging kids, or kids running to their parents. There are coaches, people shouting in those blurs. The sounds of feet on stair should break you out of your trance staring down at the photo and you hear more laughter too. But you continue to stare down at younger Calum.

Calum tries to catch onto Mali’s wrist. “Do not! God,” he huffs when she slips through his hold. She laughs, backpack still on and barrels past her old room to Calum’s. You’re standing halfway turned to the door, but still clearly engrossed in something.

“Hey,” Mali huffs out, slipping just inside the cracked door. “Have you found the good blackmailing photos yet?”

You jump just a little but lift your gaze and find Calum’s sister beaming brightly at you. “Hi,” you return with a laugh. “I found a few. Your mum broke out the photo album.”

“Good,” she returns. “Sorry for kicking you out of the arrival party. It’s not normally five of us.”

“No, no, it’s cool. I couldn’t necessarily swing a vote on voting Calum out, so, I just took that blow.”

She gives a light tuft of laughter and hisses just a little. “Yeah that’d be a little hard to swing. But I’ll teach ya a few pointers for next time.”

“I’d appreciate that,” you return and Mali excuses herself to drop off her bag. Everyone seems hooked on the concept of a next time. It falls easily from their lips and while you’ve enjoyed the time here thus far, next time isn’t on your mind. Honestly, you’re not sure what’s on your mind besides not thinking about the text messages you need to respond too. Most of them seem to be about making sure you’ve adjusted to the time difference, if you’ve seen anything exciting. And you want to tell her--but you know you’d most likely tell her half truths too. Possibly even quarter ones. So you’ve opted to tell her nothing really. It seems trivial to explain to her that you’ve gone out a couple times--to the beach and the shop that Calum mentioned earlier. Most of the time though, you spend with Calum going down his memory lane. You rode past the school’s he attended, saw all the spots he used to hang out. Those don’t feel like the spots your mother is looking for.

When the Christmas tree is unearthed and Joy brings out the decorations you don’t think about those text messages again. You instead help feed the garland around the tree to Calum who’s standing at the back of the tree and he passes it along to his mon and she passes it to Mali and Mali passes it back to you. And that’s the way it goes for the lights too. Once those are put up, you look over the bulbs that Joy has. Behind you Calum and Mali are already working to put the hooks through the box Joy approved. You’re trying to help her find the last box in that set.

“Short end, Calum. Short end is what you hook through the top of the bulb.”

“Which end is short then?” you hear him return.

“That end,” she laughs. “I’ll put the hooks. You put them on the tree. Don’t put the same colors close together. Space them out.”

“I can decorate a tree,” Calum states.

“Sometimes I wonder.”

You find the last box of bulbs in the matching set, under a layer of icicle like ornaments. “Found ‘em,” you tell Joy and she beams, stopping her work on the box she was digging in.

“Ah! I’m not sure how they got separated.”

“Someone packed them wrong,” Mali returns, focused in on hooks still. “Most likely,” she counters. You step over to her and help prep more ornaments. A few look homemade with popsicle stick and felt. You pause looking at them on the table.

“Made ‘em in primary,” Calum answers, picking up the ornaments you’ve already hooked. “I thought Mum would give up on bringing them out.”

“But I never have and never will,” she counters picking them up and proudly displaying them on the front of the tree.

Calum makes a show to wave his hands. “That.”

“You made them and I cannot not display them,” Joy laughs and takes the bulb you’ve prepped.

“I think it should be the star,” you tease.

“Do not give Mum any ideas,” Calum groans. “She needs zero ideas.”

“My dad would put mine near the star. I used to hate it too,” you offer.

“Because he was proud of them! See, it’s a parent thing,” Joy laughs, taking another ornament.

You don’t respond, giving a shrug. Maybe it’s a parent thing. And maybe it’s just a love thing, you think. Maybe putting your atrocious ornaments near the top was a way your dad was saying you were always near the top, he was always thinking of you first. When you blink the silver hooks blur for a moment and it hits you that you might be crying. So you blink again and the tears don’t completely clear.

Arms are around your shoulder and you think it’s Calum but as you turn into the embrace, you notice it’s Joy. “Hey, it’s okay,” she offers. She’s quick to scoot you over to the other end of the living room and hands you a tissue. “Do you want to keep on decorating? You can take a breather.”

“No, no, I’m okay.”

“As long as you’re sure.” Her hand runs a soothing line up and down your back. You can only nod. It takes another moment and a deep inhale before you find a resolve. Joy takes your spot hooking the ornaments and you hang one up on the branch. You’re not even sure if Calum and Mali noticed your quick time out, but they don’t seem to be visibly concerned. You finish the tree half an hour later--many ornaments had to rearranged after realizing the back hadn’t gotten nearly enough love. You snap a photo and you don’t think too much about sending it to your aunt and your grandmother, but you hover over your mom’s contact.

Would she think you’re betraying? Would she find some way to say that you could’ve been home decorating the tree too and that she could’ve used the help since Dad wasn’t around anymore? You don’t hit send. Instead you lock your phone, place it face down and ask Joy if she needs or wants any help cooking dinner. She waves you in happily, explaining the dish she’s preparing to you as you wash your hands. This is easy. This feels complete, listening to the sounds of the TV in the background. Knocks at the door don’t make your heart startle and you almost know, without looking, that it’s David. And he no doubts has an armful of things--food, drinks, and god knows what else.

“Do-do you mind me asking about your mom?” Joy brings up as you tend over your hot pan.

“I,” and all words have fallen from your brain. “I don’t know,” you answer. It sounds so stupid but it’s the truth. The whole truth. “I don’t know how I feel. I-I wouldn’t be upset, but there may or may not be a reason I’m hiding on the other side of the world.”

It’s a small laugh, but a laugh nonetheless that Joy gives. “You know, fair. It’s okay if you don’t know. Instead, we’ll knead dough,” she offers, “or whatever else we need to do.”

“I’ll take kneading dough.”

There’s a nod and a smile, an understanding that kneading dough is the best alternative. The sleeves to your hoodie start to slip down again and just before you can clear your hands from the flour to pull it up, two hands come from the side. Calum, you deduce. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Did Mum put you to work or did you volunteer?”

“Volunteered,” you answer and go back to kneading the dough. The fridge door opens and then closes a few seconds later.

“You’re a guest. You don’t have to you know?”

“I know. Just need to do something.”

“Besides not answering your mom’s texts.”

“Besides not answering my mom’s texts,” you agree. Calum reaches across the counter and grabs your phone. You gave him the passcode ages ago and shockingly he remembered it. “Gonna delete the embarrassing photos?” you tease. You already emailed yourself copies just in case you tried too.

“Nah, no need. You’d just find a way to get them again.” You watch him for just a moment open up the app and the picture of the tree is still loaded in. “Why didn’t you send this?”

“Because I didn’t want her bitchin’ to me about how I could’ve been doing that with my real family. I would rather decorate a tree with you and your family anyway. Just as real as anything else,” you huff out, pushing in a little harder into the dough.

Calum pauses for a moment, glancing over to you. He’s not even sure his ears actually heard what you are saying. “What?” he asks in an exhale.

“I’d rather spend legit any holiday with you.”

He stops you, a hand on your wrist. “Did-did you just admit that you’d spend any holiday with me and my family?”

“Do you want bread or not?” you ask and he releases your wrist. “But yes, I did admit it.” You look up from the dough, knowing you’ve worked well enough for you to be done. The Christmas tree twinkles from the corner and it’s nice to see a family together--there’s no arguments, no need to feel like you’re at arm’s length. The TV plays and it’s idealistic. It’s what you want, not the screaming that occurs on most holidays, no one too drunk off their ass, no one being kicked out.

“I like it here,” you admit softly. Christmas is about five days out and you still need to wrap Calum’s present. It’s currently hiding in your suitcase and you want to get something nice for his parents for hosting you, and you’re not entirely sure what to get Mali but you want to do something nice for her too. Calum doesn’t miss the way you stare, the longing in your gaze as you’re still knuckle deep in dough. “I could send the photos to Dad. He’d probably just send a thumbs up. But, still it would’ve been better.”

“Then send it to him.”

“Mom disconnected the line. I have no clue who has the number now.”

“Send it anyway. Whoever it is, probably wouldn’t mind.”

You shake your head and look down at the dough. It’s done and you place it back into the bowl. The idea is asinine to you. No stranger would be okay with getting a random text about a Christmas tree you decorated and whatever sob story you’d type out. Best not to bother a stranger. Even as Calum tries to urge you one last time, you don’t give in. You move about the kitchen as if you’ve always worked in and wash your hands. It doesn’t take you long before you settle onto the couch next to Mali.

I know this might be strange, Calum starts drafting. But my best friend lost their dad about two years ago and this is his old number (this is their number and they still has the number saved). I took them to see my family for Christmas since they and their mom and that side are in a rough spot. I say that like it hasn’t been years of a rough spot but they helped us decorate the tree. I don’t know who’s going to see this, if it’ll go through or not, but I’m hoping for a miracle, I guess, for kindness in the universe and kindness in a stranger. They just needs something good, so we hope you enjoy our Christmas tree. They told my mum about how their dad would put the homemade ornaments near the star. Needless to say my mum agreed with the idea. If you see this, and get the picture, I hope you have safe and happy holidays.

Calum doesn’t even think twice about hitting send on the message. He finishes pouring himself a glass of water and pour another one for you too. By the time he grabs a snack too your phone buzzes again. There’s a response from the number that once belonged to your dad.

Tree looks awesome, kid, reads the first message. And then another one follows it. Homemade decorations near the top are the only way to go. Hope your friend gets through the holidays safely, but with people like you in their life, we think they will. Happy Holidays and enjoy our tree too. A picture comes attached with it.

Calum leaves the response up. It works out perfectly that the first response sits directly under the picture Calum sent. The first part of the second text is still visible but he doesn’t worry about that. He taps on your shoulder. “The world’s not so bad after all,” he states.

It takes you a moment to realize who the message is under. And you know it’s not actually your dad. You know that line went cold months ago.Your dad didn’t call you kid too much else he was trying to annoy you. But it’s something about seeing a message from that number that makes your chest ache. For a split moment in time, he’s real again. A sob racks through your chest and you're quick to cover your mouth, aware that other people are around. “I should’ve told him so much more,” you gasp and another sob breaks the sentence up just a little at the end. But all you can do is stare at the response with blurry vision.

Calum wraps you into his arms, pulling you into his chest. “Hey, you can still tell him. Maybe not by texting this number but you can still tell him,” he whispers. And though you tremble against him, he manages to get you to the shelter of the stairs. You settle oddly on top of him, your legs draping over his and your cowered into his chest mostly. But you don’t object to the arrangement.

Joy places a box of tissues down next to you both and settles on the step just below Calum. Her hand is warm on your knee. “I thought you were kneading dough.”

You chuckle just a little but tremors still rock you. “Dough didn’t have a lot of resistance.”

She nods, tsking just a little. “Ah, next time I’ll have you knead two loaves.” Once she’s sure you’ve cried it all out, she leaves you be, though most of her comfort was soft reassurance and knee pats. But it’s just what you need.

Calum guides you upstairs and unearths his journal from his bag. Or at least a journal you think you’ve seen him writing in before. “I was going to give this to you on Christmas. But it sounds like you could use it now. Whatever you wanted to tell your dad, write it down. Pretend like your writing letters to him. I know know it might sound silly, but it helps me.”

The journal is leather, embossed on the front are your initials. It almost looks too expensive to even write in it, but when Calum hands you a pen you think you might explode again if you don’t get it off your chest. So you settle onto the edge of his bed, which is barely just enough space for two of you to sleep on during the night and tell your dad all the full truths. Everything you felt like he couldn’t take the grave, you spill onto the page.

Dad, It’s Christmas. Or it’s nearly Christmas. I’m in Australia with Calum and I’ve already had one emotional breakdown. So we need to reset the count on that one. It’s hard without you. Joy put Calum and Mali’s old homemade decorations near the star of the tree and all I wanted was to be six again and be up on your shoulders and have you force me to put my decorations up high on the tree for everyone to see. I used to hate it. When you did that. But now I miss it.

I miss a lot of things, I guess now. I miss being honest with you. I wasn’t very honest while you were dying. I was afraid that I told everything I’d be weak. That if I told you everything you’d take all the words with you when you died and I wouldn’t be able to tell anyone else since it would’ve been one of the last things I told you. It all sounds silly now to write it down, but that’s what I thought.

Here’s the other half I never told you.

Calum lingers, sitting on the floor and finding one of his old guitars sitting on the floor tucked into a corner. He slides over, and places it into his lap before strumming mindlessly over it. The scratch of the pen is hardly audible as he strums but he can envision what it sounds like, see how fast you’re scribbling words down onto the page.

Later in the week, as you have Mali and Calum helping you find a gift to give their parents, you stop at one of the small shops in the mall. Mali’s wandered off to the far corner but Calum’s close next to you, glancing around the walls for something that looks remotely interesting and appropriate. The housewares all look too dated and Calum’s not even sure what his parents do and don’t have to even suggest something like this. But Mali thought it might be a good place to stop so the three of you stopped to look.

“Thanks,” you say to Calum, running a finger over a serving spoon. “For the journal. It helped a lot.”

“You’re welcome,” he beams at you. His attention is still filtering around the store. “I have no clue what to even suggest in a place like this for my parents. They’re not super into stuff like this.”

“You sure a Kiss The Cook apron wouldn’t do the trick?” you joke holding up the red and white apron.

“Hmm, afraid not,” he laughs. The two of you still wonder about the store and you find a couple cookbooks that seem interesting. One’s for cocktails and Calum says it’s a definite--his dad would enjoy flipping through it. Neither he or Mali had gotten one for him before, so it won’t be a duplicate.

“Your mom has a lot of photos you guys. You think she’d be into something like this?” you ask, pointing out to a few picture frames. They’re all collages, just arranged differently. Calum seems to be vaguely interested though Mali worries about the fact that she tends to keep them in a particular way.

“Could make one with the photos you’ve taken over this trip, she loves stuff like that and I’m sure she wishes she could get more photos of us now since we’re gone. We spend a day taking some photos in front of our old stomping grounds and I know she’d love it,” Calum offers looking over to Mali.

She shrugs. “That could work. Sure we can’t say it was from all of us?” she jokes.

“I wouldn’t mind, especially since you two would be doing some leg work in it,” you state.

“If we’re going to do it,” Mali counters. “Let’s go with this one.” She points to a wooden slab with rows of twine wrapped around and clasps that are wooden too where stock photos are currently pinned but it’s clear that you can add your own photos.

“This really blows my flowers out of the water,” Calum mutters, holding onto the paid for box of the wooden frame.

“You also got her the embroidered pillow,” you counter. The pillow has the coordinates of Sydney, LA, and London on it--for each of the cities they’re in respectively.

“True,” he nods. “But still,”

“If you don’t want--” you start but he cuts you off.

“Hey, no, I want to do this. Shush,” he laughs. “We gotta make another stop though. I’ve seen ads for those portable printers and can print photos and I don’t see either one of you with those old school polaroid cameras.”

“I’ll have you know,” Mali teases. But she interrupts her own joke as a ponderous hum falls from her. She rattles off a couple stores that could have it.

“Let’s give it a shot,” Calum returns. The first store is a bust but the second one has it. They grab one of the last ones off the shelf and scurry to the lines. They’re long and it’s no avoiding it two days from Christmas. The rest of the day, Mali navigates, pulling over into random parking lots and telling stories about their childhood.

You snap as many photos as you can. Some are more planned than others but it’s okay. You play with angles, flipping your phone upside to get some cool shots and you’re honestly impressed with the quality of just a cellphone camera. By the time it starts to get dusk, you’re half convinced your phone will alert you that you’re almost out of space. It’s not too hard to sneak the bags up to the bedrooms. You take up distracting Joy just a little as Calum and Mali book it up the steps.

“Oh, this reminds me,” Joy says standing right as Mali clears the first step. “If you need any sort of wrapping supplies they’re in here,” she directs you down the hall and you watch Calum and Mali clear into one of the bedrooms, you think it’s Mali’s before diverting your attention back to the wrapping paper.

“Thanks,” you nod at her. “I’ll be down in a few if you want help with dinner?”

“An extra pair of hands never hurt,” she counters with a grin and it’s become a tradition, or a thing at the very least that you help her with dinner and she’s given up on trying to shoo you out of the kitchen.

You take the stairs slowly, but you can feel the buzzing in your pocket. No doubt Calum bugging you relentlessly that you’re needed upstairs. You find them in Mali’s room situated on the floor as she removes the pictures from the frame and Calum seems to messing with the printer. “Thank you for joining us,” he teases. Music starts up and the door closes.

You settle on the floor next to him. “My job was to distract so that’s what I did. What do I need to do?”

“Pairs with BlueTooth, so I just gotta get this thing on.”

“Let me know when it’s up,” you return and then pull up the photos you took on your phone. Mali helps pick out which photos have to go onto the frame. It’s only a minute or two later that Calum tells you to make sure your phone has the BlueTooth turned on.

“You cannot use that,” he laughs, as the first photo prints out. “I look so dumb in that take.”

Mali laughs. “Oh, c’mon it’s a pretty shot.”

“Yeah of you,” he returns.

You swipe to the next photo and there are no photo blunders for either one of them so you print that one down. Some are in front of buildings that you’re not even sure could mean anything. A couple are of Calum’s old practice field for soccer--the same one from the photo you were looking at when Mali first arrived. There are a few of Mali in front of the place she sang to a large audience for the first time. There’s a picture of the Christmas tree as well--Mali and Calum are in the photo adding decorations to it. There’s one of you, in the middle of Calum and Mali, arms wrapped around each other. You’re laughing because even standing you nearly stumble just trying to shift your weight a little, but the picture is perfect as the sun just starts to step a little behind you.

With the last photo printed, you look over the arrangement and give your approval. “Did you remember to grab our wrapping paper?”

“Shit,” Calum sighs. “I’ll run to the car and grab it.” You nod and head back downstairs just in time to help Joy.

It’s late before another opening arrives for you three to place the gift under the tree and during this time you also add Calum’s and Mali’s gift to the bunch. You managed to snag some cool t’s with Calum’s help for her. She eyed them in your shopping adventure and carted them around the store before ultimately deciding to put them back. Calum stayed behind to grab them off the rack while you went with her to the next store.

Over mugs of hot chocolate--though the Australian heat doesn’t warrant it-- you, Mali and Calum sit on the floor in front of the tree. “It’s been nice to outnumber him,” Mali laughs.

“I’m already outnumbered with you and Mum,” he retorts.

“Yeah, but it’s Mum. She counts but like not really. Now you’re outnumbered by someone in our age range.”

Calum shakes his head. “If you say so. I’m glad Mum and Dad weren’t too weird about it.”

You know he hasn’t brought anyone home in a long time. And part of it is probably just time, but another part is deliberate but you don’t know why. “I’m sure they were starting to think I wasn’t real,” you joke.

“Haha,” Calum gently shoves your legs. “You’re a fucking comedian.” You snicker and take another sip from your mug. The night almost doesn’t feel like it’s slipping away as Mali and Calum take turns on the guitar. You climbed up onto the sofa at some point during the night, asbentedmindly playing in Calum’s hair. But somewhere in it the strumming, sleeps pulls you under, you felt your eyes blinking close but weren’t able to recall when the final blink took you full under.

You find yourself startled awake to the sounds coming from the kitchen. Mali’s asleep on the couch, facing the opposite away of you. Calum’s reclined against the sofa between the both of you but still sitting on the floor. There’s a faint light coming from behind you and you squint against it to see the kitchen light’s on. You settle back against the arm of the couch and let yourself fall into sleep a second time.

When you wake the second time, it’s to gentle shakes and you’re not even sure you had fallen asleep again. Until you find yourself stretching again and blinking back the light of the living room. Calum’s slumped to the floor. “No, five more minutes.”

Joy chuckles. “It’s your presents you’ve gotten open.”

“Hmm, maybe I’m awake enough for presents.” Presents are slow to be handed out, mostly to the three of you still trying to wake up. But Mali gets the first tear into the wrapping paper and beams over at you spying the two shirts.

Joy loves the pillow from Calum and the jacket from Mali. Calum gets a few things, most of them necessities but the socks are cool enough to put on immediately. Mali’s content with the clothes she’s received and the necklace. Calum thought about wrapping your journal as a joke but he hands you a tiny stocking stuffed with some candies, a cool pen, and some knicks knacks he found during some of the shopping adventures. David’s tickled as he flips through the cocktail recipes.

“What is this?” Joy laughs pulling on the wooden and twine picture frame ad she’s handed it.

“For you,” you answer. “A collective effort between the three of us.”

“But originally their idea,” Calum tacks on.

Joy looks at the three of you, unsure of what trick might be pulled. She unveils the first corner and pauses. “Seriously, what is this?”

“Just keep going Mum,” Mali counters.

Joy continues tearing at the wrapping paper and she gasps for a moment noticing the photos hanging from the pins. “No way,” she laughs, lifting it up to take a closer look at the photos. “No way,” she whispers.

“The pictures can be switched out, so you can frame some, or just rotate it based on the season,” you explain.

The tears collecting in Joy’s eyes don’t get past you but they do hurt just a little. In a good way. You hadn’t seen a teary eyed smile like Joy’s in such a long time you almost forgot how good it felt, but how much it hurt too.

“You did all this for me?” she asks.

“I had help,” you return. “But I wanted to do something or give you something nice for hosting me the past two weeks and agreeing to take on an extra mouth to feed. It’s a thank you.”

She gives you another one of those hugs that squeeze more than they should, more than thought possibly. You squeeze in return and though you feel a couple tears slip down your cheek, you aren’t so afraid of the emotion. It’s something like loved, maybe it’s understood. Quite possibly it’s just the feeling of being embraced without judgement or restriction. You’re not really sure, but you do know you like it.

“Thank you,” Joy whispers while still hugging you. She makes space for the frame almost immediately though it takes a little rearranging of the living room but she finds the space. You’re sucking on a piece of candy, looking down at your phone. You know your mother is still living in Christmas Eve and the only message she’s gotten from you are about you being safe and okay.

I would send this as an actual letter, but I worry from Australia to home would take too much time. So I guess this works as next best. I can only hope you understand.

The easy things: Australia’s been fun. Haven’t run into a spider as big as my head just yet but there’s still plenty of time. Calum’s family has been amazing. I helped with Christmas decorations. Joy and I are cooking buddies. If I never had to leave, I probably wouldn’t.

And on and on you go about the tails of this particular vacation before getting to the hard stuff, how it’s hard sometimes to be home because home feels empty and too far away and how it’s hard sometimes to feel like you fit in the puzzle of it all. You tell her how hurt you are seeing how her side paid the death of your father dust. How nothing’s felt right once and you don’t know what caused it. You don’t know how it started but all you do know is that when dad was around, when you and him had those quiet moments it was closest to right you had every experience until now--sitting in your friend’s childhood home in a whole different country, more than half the day ahead of your own family and watching someone else’s world that you know you’re not really apart of but somehow you fit even as a stranger.

There’s that nagging voice in the back of your head that tells you this could all go to shit. Your mother could read all this and blow her top. But at least she would blow her top knowing the truth and the whole truth at that--that you love your family for being your family but recognizing the detriment happening.

I need you to know Mom. Because Dad didn’t. Or maybe he did, but I know I wasn’t the one that told him. So I am telling you. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to like any of this and I’m not asking you or telling you you have to. But you have to know the truth and I have to tell you.

Before I go, there’s a present for you. Hidden in the top box of Dad’s stuff in your closet. It’s only tiny pieces of me and him, of us, but I hope you enjoy it. I hope it provides comfort.

While you’re not the most crafty, you know your way around a sewing machine. You didn't keep nearly as many t-shirts from family vacations as you would’ve liked to, hanks to a couple moves. But you kept enough and you snagged a few of your dad’s t-shirts and some of his old flannels too. All together it made a decent sized blanket--it could’ve been larger but there were a few failed starts before you got the true hang of it.

You’re not sure the whole message will send correctly and you think maybe it should’ve been an email, but that feels even less personal. So you watch the message lift up, hover for just a moment before it settles down and just beneath it, Delivered, pops up. Immediately, you place your phone face down. A watched pot never boiled and a watched text is never actually read.

“Calum!” Mali laughs. Just behind you they go barreling past, through the living room and he tries to make an escape up the steps but she manages to lunge fast enough to take hold of the back of his t-shirt. “Drop the cookies and no one has to get hurt.”

“Never!” he cries in return. His attempts are half hearted and you can only giggle watching them. That in turn earns you target as a potential accomplice and he calls out to you to get you to take the cookies and make an escape.

You walk over, take the packet of cookies. They’re decorated for Christmas and you decide take one off the top is fair pay for whatever mess you’re stepping into. After your take the first bite of your cookie, you hand the packet over to Mali who happily release Calum to snag a couple. “Traitor,” Calum returns, but takes another cookie too.

“I got my pay,” you laugh, polishing off the one cookie in your hand.

David enters then, taking another cookie too. “I got mine too,” he laughs before disappearing again back down the hallway. There are a few things around the house he needed to repair and Calum had been helping him though you suspect more than helping, Calum was sneaking cookies and trying to hide them from Mali. You offered to help too, but David insisted that you actually take a rest at least once during this time away.

You manage to catch the buzz over all the laughter. You don’t think your mother could’ve responded that fast. It’s not possible. But you slip away from the group and grab your phone from the couch cushions. Your heart hammers against your ribs, you can feel the vein in your neck throbbing.

Thank you for the blanket. It’s quite lovely. Glad you’re enjoying Australia. I don’t know if I can say sorry and have it mean much. But in turn, thank you for telling me the truth. Somehow you expected this to be much more emotional, much more earth shattering. But tides don’t change in the blink of an eye and cities don’t build themselves in a day.

“We should have a board game night,” Mali suggests from behind you. “Dunno know. Not much will be open up for long.”

“I’ll kick your ass in Scrabble,” Calum returns, “Anytime.”

And just behind is all you’ve ever really wanted. But just in front of you is all you’ve ever had, your mother and the distance. Maybe it’s not a matter of what you deserve or what is actually yours by blood. Maybe it’s just time to admit that family is also chosen. And you did all you could with your mother. You told her the truth.

A tear splashes onto your screen and you wipe at your eyes quickly. When had those formed? They didn’t even sting that time or maybe they did and you just hadn’t felt it. You’re not sure. Her message doesn’t warrant a response. Though you do imagine for a moment, her curled up on the couch, your blanket across her lap as she snacks on pistachios and the fireplace blazes next to her. The TV is playing Polar Express, her favorite Christmas film. And if the scene is sad, your mother is sad. And if the scene is happy, your mother is happy. And you like it better that she is tethered to the film’s emotions rather than anything going on outside of it.

“You down for a board game night? If not, we can find something else.” Calum’s voice is close and you can feel just how close is he off to the side of you.

“I’m down for a board game night,” you nod. Your voice quivers just a little. Crying is exhausting and you’d wish you had nothing left, but there is always the dregs left. Just enough to make your cheeks wet.

“You good? What’s up?”

“Told my mom,” you answer truthfully.

He figures it didn’t go super well given your silence. “We can watch movies in my room then.”

“She didn’t threaten to blow up the country so I think we’re good,” you continue on. “But she loves her Christmas present. So I’ll take it as a win.”

“It’s the small victories.”

You nod, looking at the photos hanging right next to the Christmas tree. “Like kicking your ass in Scrabble,” you laugh. “I’m on Mali’s team.”

“Fighting words, those are fighting words. I brought you out here and you already turned over my cookie stash. Now you’re going against me in Scrabble! Really?”

“I’ve chosen you over and over,” you admit quietly. You’ve chosen him as a friend, and confidante and you appreciate him for being there. But you don’t say all that, instead you counter with, “But I think sometimes I should kick your ass in a game of Scrabble or too.”

“You’re lucky I love you,” he returns with a laugh.

“I am,” you state simply. “I am lucky.”

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thatgamefromthatad · 3 years

Text

Seen these ads? (Obey Me! Review)

This is a visual novel/otome/gacha card RPG game with the same characters and themes as featured in the ads.

As stated in many of the ads this game centers around seven demon brother love interests (as well as some other potential love interests) although the game has a lot of plot elements other than just romance. Most of the ads that I’ve seen feature real art that appears in the game one way or another, and the ads tend to be focused more on the characters and theme in general rather than specific gameplay. Of the ads that do appear to show gameplay, most of the time it’s not really what you’ll see in the game but still follows fairly close to the actual game (for example, the “kiss, free, whip” ad on the top left doesn’t show real gameplay, but you can kiss or whip that character. But that specific art comes from a gacha card I believe and isn’t what you see when you do the kissing and whipping).

A few notes before I get into the full review:

I’m a lesbian, so I’m definitely not the target audience for this game, but I always try to be objective and open-minded when playing any game I’m not the target audience for (other examples I’ve reviewed in the past are Moments, which was also primarily targeted toward women who are attracted to men, Immortal Taoists, which involved a genre I had never heard of before and really had no interest in, Time Princess, which also wasn’t my favorite genre but was still a great game, and various Genius Inc. visual novels, which are targeted more toward high-school age boys as far as I can tell).

Speaking of lesbians, this game weirdly censors the word “lesbians” but not any other LGBTQ+ terms (that don’t include the word “sexual”) as far as I can tell; I decided it was enough of a one-off thing that it wouldn’t factor a huge amount in my overall review of the game, but I think it’s still something to take note of and not let off the hook since it definitely shows bias and can be offensive to players.

This game is rated 12+ on the Apple App Store, and I was pretty harsh on Crush Crush for being rated that way because I thought it crossed the line with some of its sexually suggestive content. I kept that in mind while playing this one, and personally I don’t think it crossed the line in the same way, at least not from what I’ve played so far; although it does have sexually suggestive content (most often when interacting with the character Asmodeus, who is literally known in the game as the “Avatar of Lust”), it’s much more occasional through tidbits of dialog as opposed to in Crush Crush where it involved a whole section of the game and was more interactive in nature. I would definitely still cringe at the thought of a 12-year-old reading some of this dialog, but I think it fits fairly within the App Store descriptors of “Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity” and “Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes.”

Last note - there is a character in this game (Luke) who has the appearance and demeanor of a small child who you can interact with in a similar way to the other love interest characters, which concerned me for obvious reasons. I looked more into this, specifically reading into all of the different dialog options involving this character, and his responses never seem to be more than platonic, which is good. He still blushes when you give him gifts and stuff, which is kind of awkward, and it seems weird to throw a kid character into an otome game, but all considered I wouldn’t say the game is promoting anything inappropriate (unlike one of the Genius VNs that clearly involved relationships between an adult and minors).

Sorry I know that’s a lot of notes and disclaimers but I just wanted to that all out of the way as general concerns anyone might have trying this game or reading this review!

Without further ado, read my full review below:

***

(I’m trying a new color-coding system to help highlight some of the main points of my review if you don’t want to read my entire essay word-for-word lol. Pink is a positive aspect of the game, red is a negative aspect/criticism and purple is not necessarily positive or negative but just something I wanted to highlight.)

😈 Is the game actually fun? Yes! Just in terms of production value, this game is top notch: the art and character designs are very appealing, the transitions between characters’ poses and facial expressions during VN scenes are actually animated (which looks much smoother and more natural than switching between still images), the voice acting is great (although the VN scenes aren’t fully voice acted, some parts like phone calls are and the characters say different phrases during scenes and battles as well)(Note: all the voice acting is Japanese), and the music is FANTASTIC and perfectly sets the vibe throughout the game.

The best parts of this game in my opinion are the different personalities of the characters and the overall plot; although some of the characters’ personalities can be a bit one-note at times (for example, one character’s entire personality that I’ve seen so far is that he likes to eat and is always hungry), the characters each have their own charm and play off each other well. I found myself getting invested in each of the characters’ desires and goals throughout the story, even the characters I didn’t particularly like. The story is also chock full of humor which is always fun, and the whole world and backstory built around this game (the “Devildom” setting and the idea of an exchange student program with angels, humans and demons) are also unique and impressive.

I really enjoyed the multiple modes of storytelling i.e. how the VN chapters are supplemented with text messages and phone calls from characters and an Instagram spoof with additional side stories to unlock. I know this isn’t a new thing in mobile games (even Gardenscapes and Homescapes do it to an extent lol) but add the compelling characters and overall production value on top and it’s a really enjoyable experience. Since the home screen of the game is set up like it’s your phone, with the different parts of the game represented as “apps,” the game kind of creates a feeling like you’re really living in this world with these characters where you can freely scroll through their Instagram feeds and check the messages you get from them on your own time. The shop where you can buy items and premium currency is called Akuzon (an Amazon spoof) and the place where all your gacha cards are is called “contacts,” which further adds to the immersive effect.

The “dating” part of the game is pretty cute although I haven’t gotten super far so I’m not sure of the full scope of the romantic interactions. From what I can tell, in addition to the dialog, blushy faces and bedroom eyes you get from characters when you give them gifts and touch different parts of their body (above the belt lol), when you raise your intimacy level with them you get additional phone calls and messages from them (I haven’t played a lot of otome games but I think that’s how a lot of them go). I wasn’t that invested in this part of the game but I think there’s some strategy that goes with using the right combination of gifts and touches to maximize intimacy boosts and get certain dialog, which adds a whole other aspect of gameplay in addition to the main game. I also noticed that occasionally your choices throughout the VN chapters will give you a small intimacy boost with a certain character; I kind of wish this was even more integrated since most of the time I felt like no matter what I chose it didn’t make any difference in my relationship with characters. Also, I don’t think there’s a way to “officially” date a specific character, it’s more about raising the intimacy level to earn more interactions but it doesn’t actually affect the main plot.

As far as the main mode of progressing through the game, which is winning “dance battles” with teams from your gacha collection, this part of the game has its own positive qualities such as the cute chibi forms of the characters that appear on screen and the fact that some of the special attacks show a little anime clip of the character (of course it’s less exciting when you see the same clip every battle but I still thought it was a nice touch). I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a rhythm aspect as the “dance battle” name would imply, and your main interaction during the battle itself is basically just tapping hearts that pop up and tapping the characters when their attacks are ready, but you also have the option to skip that whole interactive sequence and just get a result based on your team’s stats, so there’s not much to complain about there (especially since the battles are sort of a side note compared to the storytelling aspect of the game despite being the main element of RPG-based gameplay that allows you to progress). If you are interested in the RPG aspects, there’s plenty of that to work with (building teams, balancing attributes, managing resources/rewards to level up cards and progress through skill trees of sorts, all that good stuff) although you’re limited to an extent by how difficult it is to get a lot of gacha draws without paying real money. It’s even harder to be able to focus on both strategy and character relationships while playing for free when the same scarce currency is used for both gacha draws and gifts.

👿 Is this a free game or a “free game”? Despite what I just said, I would still consider it a free game - you can gradually save up some of premium currency the game gives out through tasks in order to pay for more gacha draws and other items, and as far as I can tell you can access the main story and the other parts of the game without hitting a paywall. I only got to the fourth chapter so far though so don’t take this assessment as gospel. Like with a lot of other freemium games you might feel pressured to pay (especially when you run out of gifts to give your lover boys, which was the biggest downer for me, or if you’re obsessed with wanting to collect a lot of cards or get a specific card) but since you don’t actually need to pay to progress I still consider it free.

There’s also an energy system where you hit a wall and have to wait if you run out, but I never ran out because of the huge amount of energy the game dumps on you when you first start, and it seems like there are a bunch of other ways to get extra energy as well. There also aren’t pop-up or watch-to-earn ads in this game that I saw.

💀 Features

Main visual novel scenes and storyline (the visual novel scenes come between dance battle stages and there are a few short side routes that branch off but still one main route as far as I can tell, I don’t think your dialog choices really make a different except for in how the characters react to you immediately afterward. Still the main storyline in itself is fun to follow and it’s fun to get different reactions out of the characters based on what you say)

Dance battles (I’m not fully knowledgeable about the minutia of the RPG system at play here but in general the outcome of the battle will depend on the level, rank and attributes of your cards compared against the difficulty and attributes of the stage you’re playing. There also “memory cards” that can be assigned to support your team and expendable temporary boosters called “glow sticks” that boost your stats for one battle. During the battle itself you tap hearts that appear to earn extra points and you can tap your characters when their power is charged up to “attack” your opponent and use special skills. There are guides online that go deeper into stats and strategies and such if you’re interested. Different stages have different rewards for completion and you can quick complete levels you’ve already beaten to mine resources you need)

Gacha mechanic and cards (the gacha area of this game is called “Nightmare” and there are a few different pools along with event pools each with their own odds and sets of cards you can get. For the default pools you get free draws periodically and I believe you get one free draw for each event pool IIRC. You also get a bunch of vouchers for draws when you first start the game which got me handful of SSRs and a couple URs to build a couple of solid teams right off the bat. In addition to drawing directly from gacha pools you can get some cards by collecting card pieces as rewards from stages and events until you have enough to get the actual card. Each card has its own set of stats/attributes, can be leveled up and has a skill tree of sorts that can be progressed through with resources mined through beating stages, although it’s more of an attribute tree than a skill tree since most of the branches just add points onto one of your card’s attributes. Some cards, the rarer ones, have special skills that can be used in battle)

One-on-one characters interactions and intimacy i.e. the “dating” part (there are two ways this occurs: 1) you can set a specific character to your home screen that allows you to enter into an interaction with them, with a refresh period in between interactions 2) the main way, which is through “surprise guests” after dance battles. These surprise guests show up frequently but not always, and they’re always one of the three team members you used in battle, selected randomly. For each one-on-one interaction you can do three actions - either give a gift, touch the character or ignore the character. Sometimes the character will also offer you a high five which counts as an action if you oblige. Different characters have different favorite gifts and touching different parts of the body can get a different reaction depending on the character and your level of intimacy I believe. Your intimacy level with a character increases depending on the combination of actions you perform, and sometimes the character also gives you gifts back like more energy or resources. There are guides for this online as well)

Text messages and phone calls (text messages are the main mode of storytelling outside of the main VN scenes - you get messages from characters or multiple characters in group chats that you respond to with preset messages or stickers similar to how you make choices during the VN parts. Some of the text messages correspond with the main plot as you progress, ex. A character texts you to be in a certain place at a certain time and next VN scene is of you two meeting at that place. I think other text messages also come up when you reach certain intimacy levels with characters. There are certain group messages that you don’t respond to where you’re basically spying on a group chat among characters and just get to see what everyone’s saying. In addition to written messages and emoji stickers characters will also sometimes send pictures. Phone calls are fully voice-acted dialog you have with another character and they seem to pop up when you reach certain intimacy levels - I’ve only gotten ones so far with the two characters I have the highest intimacy with)

Instagram spoof/“Devilgram” (Devilgram is an in-game photo sharing social media app similar to Instagram and the photos on there correspond to gacha cards. When you acquire the gacha card that corresponds to a Devilgram post you unlock a side story, but you also need keys to unlock further scenes from that story, which can be gradually earned through completing tasks and such)

To Do tasks (completing tasks on your To Do is the main way to earn premium currency in the game along with other rewards and resources. There are daily tasks, overall tasks and tasks specific to each character. Examples of tasks are completing a certain stage or number of stages, beating a stage using a team that includes a certain character or reaching a certain intimacy level with a character. There are also beginner missions when you start the game that I think stay available until you complete all of them)

Events (there are sometimes side story events called “pop quizzes” and gacha events that are available for a limited time, or sometimes an event has both a corresponding pop quiz and gacha pool. The pop quizzes are separate chapters with their own dance battles and VN scenes, and the battles will come with reward points that you can spend on different prizes. Sometimes there are unique cards you can only get from an event. Other minor types of events include log-in bonus events and events where you can get special types of gifts for your love interests. There’s also a feature where you can “time-travel” back to old events at some cost but I haven’t explored this much)

Jobs (you can assign characters to passively complete jobs that earn you a small amount of non-premium currency over time and also increases your intimacy with the assigned characters by a small amount)

Customization (you can unlock avatars of different characters to use for your profile and set the name you want characters to refer to you by throughout the game. You can also change the outfit of your homescreen character, change the homescreen wallpaper and change the homescreen background music by making purchases in the Akuzon shop or acquiring certain gacha cards)

⚖️ Ad Honesty Rating: 4/5 (just from the ads I’ve seen, especially the ones that appear to be running currently, there don’t seem to be blatantly fake ads and the ads show real art and do well conveying the theme and characters in the game. However some of the ads are misleading about the actual mechanics of gameplay and may also lead you to believe there are actual romance routes with the characters which is not really the case)

⭐️ Overall Rating: 5/5 (I definitely didn’t want to give this game a great rating just because it’s super popular on Tumblr but I can definitely see why it’s so popular. There are lots of things to do, the characters are very lovable, it’s funny, the art is great, the music is great and the lore and overall vibe are compelling and unique. It’s a high-quality game with a good story and I’ll probably keep playing it)

▶️ Ad Example:

▶️ Gameplay Examples:

Dance Battles

youtube

Surprise Guest

youtube

If you got through this review bless your heart ❤️ Special thanks to @human-watching-ads-from-devildom which is where I was able to view some of the ads since I was having trouble finding them elsewhere online and viewing some of them on the Facebook ad library.

Follow me for more reviews of those free mobile games you’re always getting ads for! Thanks for reading! 🥳

#obey me #obey me shall we date #otome games #gacha games #visual novels #full review #anime games #rpg #dating simulation games #romance games #war and peace but it’s just a review of a mobile game #sorry if there are typos or mistakes

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capri-ramblings · 4 years

Text

I want a Magicam account so I can follow everyone in Twst (*´ω｀*)

Requests are in the works,both old and new. Your patience is greatly appreciated 🙏❤️

"Who's on Magicam?"

Riddle Rosehearts

- Riddle isn't always on his phone. Rather he has a schedule for when he can and won't use it.

- So, it's natural to say that he isn't on a lot of social media accounts aside from his existing magicam and email

- He doesn't see being on your phone all the time as a very good habit in the first place but he sees why people depend on it for entertainment with so many new apps and games made for it

- Riddle's magicam profile is a pretty simple one if not bland?

- He doesn't pay much attention to it in the first place but he does put just a bit of effort into making it look nice to his eyes

- His profile picture is him in Heartslyabul's full dorm uniform and his bio is just his name and his favourite rule

- Again,since he's rarely on it, Riddle's posts is rather few in numbers and are usually pictures he's taken of his favourite sweets or books he's finished reading placed neatly on his desk. He has one picture of himself in casual wear and two pictures with both Trey and Cater (which Cater probably took using his phone)

- He never makes stories unless there's a special event then he'd save a good picture of the entire dorm to post later.

- Riddle likes following pages with sweets and pastries along with ones that he sees as inspirational and informative

- He doesn't care much about followers at all and likes that his profile is seemingly private.

Trey Clover

- Trey's profile is just as simple as Riddle's, with a picture of him and his siblings as his profile picture and the words "Family and Baking" written on his bio followed by emojis of a smiley face and cake

- He doesn't post a lot but he does makes lots of stories whenever he's back at home, be it with his parents or his siblings, you'll never miss a chance at seeing him make pastries and bake cakes

- Back at school he completely shuts it off to focus on studies and other responsibilities but when he has free time he opens it up just so he can see his family members in the stories he's saved

- Like Riddle,Trey also believes it isn't good to look at your phone all the time but if you need a bit of a stress reliever then he gets it fully

- Trey would probably have lots of pictures where he's tagged by other people,mostly his mom and younger cousins who just always wants a picture with him

- Sometimes when he's really proud of a pastry he's made, he'll spend time taking a good picture of it then posting it with cute emojis. He tags Riddle in them all the time.

- Trey doesn't mind who follows him as long as they aren't creepy or plain disruptive, and the number count is also something he doesn't really care about.

- He likes tagging Cater and Riddle on recipes he finds on other people's magicam post, using it as a hint of him wanting to try a new pastry

- Magicam is his life support

Cater Diamond

- Not literally but like 👀

- If Cater isn't posting anything he's probably doing a live and chilling with his followers

- A big part of his time is spent on his profile and other social media apps, he uses different pictures for each social account he has, each with fun and amusing bios to read

- His bright and flashy personality really comes through all his profiles and one can't help but to feel welcome and intrigued after seeing through his entire magicam account

- His current magicam profile picture is of him with one of the Heartslyabul hedgehog and his bio says "Fun and loving Senpai, always here to bring a smile for my cute juniors!"

- Despite his avid addiction to selfies,Cater is pretty skilled in aesthetic photography and landscape capture and sometimes you can even find pictures of Riddle or Trey and even Deuce and Ace on his account. Each photo aesthetic and revealing bits and pieces of their own personalities

- His hashtags can get a bit over the top but he knows what's hot and recent so if you want someone to keep you updated on the latest trends,Cater senpai's account is the place to browse

- He appreciates each one of his followers and always makes time to do lives and interact with them, it's a fun past time he cherishes and it always gives him that sparkly after glow whenever he sees comments or people just saying how he helps them with stress and boredom

- Cater isn't vain or in desperate need of attention but it's always nice to know people genuinely likes the stuff he does

- He follows lots of fashion pages and models or celebrities like Vil,though if he sees one of his juniors in need of an account boost, be sure as hell Cater will do anything in his power to help them!

- The only reason Ortho has a magicam account is because he wanted to see what everyone else was doing and also because he wanted somewhere he could show off his latest and coolest tech Idia gave to him!

- He's adorable and bright and his profile picture is the picture Cater took for him during a ceremony at the school, where he's wearing his robes with a small peace sign held up

Ortho Shroud

- Ortho follows all kinds of people he finds interesting and Cater is one of them. He likes how positive Cater is and even though his following isn't that big he's glad there's people who would come by and like his posts or join his lives

- He's tried to have Idia actively join in but all he's gotten is semi blurry pictures of his brother and short clips of Idia playing his games or fixing a device

- He isn't active all the time but whenever he does he likes to spam people he follows by liking their newest post and commenting on their pictures, after all they spent all that time to post it right? So he has to praise their efforts!

- Honestly, most of his followers don't get the whole tech idea but because Ortho is very honest and genuinely bubbly, they can't help but have him appear on their feeds and interact with the young boy

- Ortho has a lot of love and adoration for his brother too so people are always cheering him on!

- Like Cater, he's also up to date with the latest trends and never fails to let Idia on them too.

Jamil Viper

- Jamil's account is private and his profile is simple yet somehow rather formal. The picture he uses for his profile picture is a black background with the letter 'J' written in cursive

- He's rarely on it but he's posted a few pictures and videos that are surprisingly very aesthetic to the eyes

- Since he dances and cooks, his posts are mostly made of solo dancing sessions or him making his favourite food

- Jamil doesn't follow a lot of people and he's very particular of who gets to follow him, and since he doesn't see the point of interacting with people he won't ever meet, he naturally gives off a reserved personality online that rivals how he is in real life

- He follows Kalim, of course, but he never likes any of his posts, though he will occasionally check the stories Kalim posts

- The words "Tired" is the first thing written on his bio before he places his name underneath it.

- Jamil pretty much uses magicam only when he has nothing else to do and though he gets why most people are hooked on it, he'd rather walk around the oasis to kill time.

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst wonderland #twisted wonderland scenarios #twisted wonderland fanfic #riddle rosehearts #trey clover #cater diamond #ortho shroud #jamil viper #twst riddle #twst trey #twst cater #twst ortho #twst jamil #twst fluff #twst headcanons

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gilmores-glorious-blog · 4 years

Text

julie and the phantoms week day five- favorite fanfic trope (Willex + coffee shop AU)

I’m really obssesed with the idea of a willex coffee shop au (probably because i thought about barista!willie for like one second and fell instantly in love), so here’s my take on it! (Warning for cursing)

@jatp-week

This is all Luke’s fault, Alex thought as he stood in front of the prettiest boy he’d ever seen in his entire goddamn life- the boy he’d just spilled hot coffee all over.

And it was! Kind of. Most of it was Alex’s fault for being a disaster of a human being, but for the sake of convenience, Alex chose to blame it on Luke.

After all, if Luke hadn’t overslept, the job of getting everyone’s pre-rehearsal drinks would have fallen to him, not Alex. But Luke had overslept, probably due to staying up all night writing songs, and Alex had woken up to a frantic text from his best friend asking him to go to the coffee shop for him, since Alex lived much closer to Julie’s studio than Luke did and had plenty of time to get both coffee and to rehearsal on time.

So Alex had found himself entering Hollywood Coffee, a nice place in the middle of Sunset Boulevard that he hadn’t actually been to before (again, getting drinks was usually Luke’s job). He didn’t pay much attention as he walked to the register, and as he waited in the short line, he pulled out his phone and opened his notes app, making sure he had everyone’s order written down properly. Alex had gotten much better with handling his anxiety, but everyday social interactions were still far from his favorite thing.

Alex was just finishing going over the order in his head for what had to be the fifteenth time, because the last thing he wanted was to be on his phone the whole time he was talking to the barista- how rude would that be?!- when he heard the employee in question wish the person in front of Alex a nice day, and Alex stepped up to the counter, still not looking up as he tucked his phone back into his pocket.

“What can I get for you?” A friendly voice asked, and Alex finally looked up at the barista.

Fuck.

Alex wasn’t sure if he was breathing as he stared at the boy in front of him. He had tan skin and long dark hair that was pulled up into a messy bun, wispy strands of hair framing his face perfectly. He was wearing what appeared to be a tye dye crop top under his black apron. The shirt was loose and short-sleeved- which was very unfortunate for Alex, who had made the mistake of looking at the man’s arms and felt himself growing very red as he took in the impressive muscles. He scanned the apron, finding a name tag with ‘Willie’ scrawled across it. The apron also had a pin that read ‘He/They’ and a rainbow pin.

The guy- Willie- made a small sound, something between a cough and a sigh, and Alex suddenly remembered he was supposed to be ordering drinks, not ogling the random cute boy. Alex’s head shot up, and he opened his mouth to speak, but found himself unable to do so as he accidentally made eye contact with Willie.

Alex had heard people been described as having “kind eyes” before, but he’d never understood what they meant by that until he looked at Willie. There really was no other way to describe the boy’s deep brown eyes. The sunlight streaming in the nearby window lit his eyes with a soft golden glow, and Alex could have easily kept staring into them forever, but Willie blinked and Alex was jolted out of his trance.

“Uhh….” Alex started, but was still finding himself unable to talk. “Sorry, I… um… here.” Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, unlocking it quickly and shoving the still-open drink order into Willie’s face.

Well that wasn’t ideal. But hey, at least if Alex didn’t talk, he couldn’t embarrass himself any further.

“Oh! Uh, do you mind if I…” Willie gestured to the phone.

Alex stared at him blankly for a moment before replying, “Yeah! Yeah of course! Here!” Alex dropped the phone into Willie’s outstretched hand and stared down at the floor while Willie carefully read over his order. Alex frantically tapped a rhythm on his legs, trying to calm down the blush that had spread across his whole face.

Willie placed the phone on the counter, and Alex quickly swept it up into his pocket.

“Okay, your drinks will be ready soon!” Willie smiled at Alex and Alex felt himself go weak in the knees at the boy’s crooked grin.

Alex just nodded. He probably should move from the counter, but he didn’t want to leave Coffee Shop Boy forever.

Willie smiled at him again, nodding at his shirt. “Nice shirt.” Alex glanced down quickly to see what he was wearing. It was a really stupid shirt of Reggie’s- plain pink with a hot dog on it, god knows why- that had been left at his place. Why Alex was wearing it, he didn’t know. He had probably been tempted by fate to wear it today for the sole purpose of humiliating himself further in front of the cute barista.

Alex just attempted to smile at Willie and hurried away from the register, hearing a faint “Have a nice day!” from the other boy as he left.

Alex found a seat in the farthest corner of the coffee shop and… well he didn’t want to say that he buried his head in his hands, but also that’s exactly what he did. Why am I such a disaster! This is why I can’t get a boyfriend! He cursed his existence, wishing he was capable of seeing cute boys without obviously staring at them like a creep.

Alex sat there like that for what couldn’t have been more than ten minutes, but felt like much longer. He eventually took his head out of hands and decided that he’d rather get his anxiety out by pacing around the coffee shop as he waited for his drinks to be ready.

Alex stood up, turned around, and promptly crashed into somebody, falling to the floor. He felt hot liquid splash against him and his head was ringing from the force of the collision.

“Oh my god are you okay?” A worried voice asked from above him, and Alex felt hands on his arms as the person who had landed on top of him pulled themselves up.

Alex opened his eyes and found Willie staring back at him.

Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit-

Willie stood fully, extending a hand to Alex to help him up. Alex took it on instinct, but immediately regretted doing so. His hands were sweaty and warm and sticky with coffee and oh god he’d really fucked up this time-

“I am so sorry.” Willie said once Alex was standing. “I realized that I didn’t get your name, so I figured I’d just bring your drinks to you, but I didn’t see you moving to get up… anyways, I’m really sorry.”

Alex ran his hand through his hair, blushing madly at Willie talking to him in such a genuine way. “It’s okay. It’s my fault.”

“No, no, it’s not! Here, let me make you new drinks.” Willie turned to go back behind the counter but Alex reached out and grabbed his arm- shocking both Willie and himself.

“Don’t bother.” Alex said, dropping Willie’s arm as quickly as he’d grabbed it. “I have to go,” Willie looked at him curiously. “Band practice.” Alex explained.

“Oh, nice!” Willie responded. “But are you sure you don’t want me to get you something? I can just whip up those drinks again really quick.”

“I’m sure,” Alex answered. “I’m already running late.” It was true, and there was nothing worse than being late to a rehearsal with Julie Molina (if looks could kill…).

“Okay… well, if you’re sure. But I have to find a way to repay you. Like, actually I do, or I’ll get in trouble with my boss. And believe me, being in trouble with my boss would be bad.” Willie shuddered in a way that filled Alex with a surprising amount of anger towards this unnamed boss.

“I can come back after practice? Maybe I’ll buy something then.” Alex suggested. The more he talked to Willie, the less embarrassed he felt and found himself just enjoying being in the company of the other boy.

Willie nodded, seeming to contemplate carefully what he was going to say next. “Let me pay you back in another way though. I’ve got to make up for ruining your shirt.”

Alex was about to point out that it wasn’t actually his shirt, and also that Willie’s clothes were equally soaked, but Willie wasn’t done talking.

“I’ll pay for your drinks. I don’t mind paying out of my own pocket. But let me take you out for coffee- somewhere else, though.” Willie laughed. “I’m kinda sick of the drinks here.”

Holy shit.

Was Willie… asking him out?

Even after he blatantly checked him out, was so awkward that he couldn’t even talk to him, and collided with him and got coffee all over him?

Well, Alex wasn’t going to be the one to complain.

“Yes. Please. I would like that.” Alex hurriedly responded, furiously blushing and hoping his eagerness wasn’t too obvious.

Willie smiled, and goddamn, if Alex thought that first smile was captivating. This one was clearly different from Willie’s customer service smile, wider and much more genuine, and Alex would have fainted from it had he not become completely numb to how hot Willie was from the events of the past twenty minutes.

“Cool. I’ll meet you at Sunset Brew after my shift?” Willie asked, referencing another coffee shop a few blocks down.

Alex just nodded, smiling shyly.

“See ya there, Hotdog.” Willie bumped Alex’s shoulder and began to walk back to the counter.

It took Alex’s brain a few seconds to process the nickname, but then he cried out, “Wait!”

Willie stopped walking and looked expectantly at Alex.

“Uh… I didn’t get your number?” Alex rubbed the back of his neck. Although Willie had told him a place to meet up, Alex still wanted to get the boy’s number. In case any number of things went wrong, he still wanted to be able to talk to him again.

Willie just winked. “Check your phone.”

He disappeared behind the counter, and Alex pulled out his phone, confused. He found it still open to the notes app, and at the bottom of the list of drinks, Alex found text that hadn’t been there before, along with a phone number.

Call me ;)

Alex smiled as he left the coffee shop, trying his hardest to not freak out and scream right there on the street- his freaking out could wait until he was with his friends.

He’d have to thank Luke for oversleeping.

#i love them....#willex #willex fic #julie and the phantoms #jatp #jatp fic #julie and the phantoms fic #jatpweek #jatp week #willie jatp #alex jatp #eli.writes #i wrote this while watching the news so theres probably a lot of errors but whatever ig

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rezhood · 3 years

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StephCass Vent Ficlet

(Schools been getting to me recently, and I wrote this to calm down. Forgive me for spelling and grammar mistakes, I wrote it on the train home in the notes app.

Lots of swearing because Steph’s stressed potty mouth)

———

Steph is pissed, way more than she has any right to be over one stupid heated comment, from someone who does not matter to her at all. But the thing is, it isn’t just one comment. It’s been a series of never ending comments, complaints, and concerns with this one girl.

It’s infuriating, because the class should be an easy A. It has no right to be anything but that, yet this bitch is making it one of Steph’s most grueling courses.

The second the zoom call is closed she screams into the palms of her hands, prompting Cass to finally emerge from their shared bedroom. She just chuckles from the doorway. How can she do this? Steph is going through it and her girlfriend is laughing at her. The cruelty.

She’s gotta vent.

“That fucking bitch Vera is back on her bullshit!” She exclaims, and Cass doesn’t seem surprised in the least. It’s been a nonstop issue ever since her professor assigned the groups in January. Steph doesn’t understand it. She’s never had a group member be awful by being too involved in things. She’s got a nasty habit of texting the group chat at two AM, and yes given Steph herself is awake but it’s a SCHOOL GROUP CHAT WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT. You just don’t do that, especially on school nights.

And Saturdays, specifically the last three Saturdays at six PM, the group chat is blown up by Vera wanting to work on something that moment, despite the fact it’s been well established no one else is available. Because, ya know, everyone else has a fucking job, Vera, and rent to pay. Not everyone has rich parents who pay your tuition, and literally no friends to the point you’re craving to work on a group project every Saturday night.

Fucking insane.

“I fucking told you she was gonna go to the professor, Cass! I told you, I called it, and it’s exactly what she did! That fucking bitch finished the GROUP ASSIGNMENT NINE DAYS EARLY WITHOUT WARNING and then complained to the professor no one else helped! What kind of psychotic shit is that? Who does that? What the fuck does she gain? Sorry EVERYONE ELSE was working when YOU felt like working on the paper, you didn’t need to fucking finish it! Some of us have fucking rent to pay, VERA. We can’t drop everything on a Saturday to work on a two paged assignment due over a week away. I’m so pissed, Cass. What the literal fuck?” Steph screams (in her in door screaming voice), half to her girlfriend and half to God. It’s been something different with this girl for three months now, with every assignment it’s something. She’s never available when they want to meet, but wants everyone to bend to her whim. Then there was the time she screamed at the group for not interacting in the break out meeting, but literally everyone else was talking and she just had her speakers off. She didn’t even fucking apologize for flipping out and wasting time?!

Literal psychotic energy.

It sucks enough Steph’s last year of college is all online, because of fucking covid, but now she has to deal with this bitch too?! She really can’t catch a break.

Cass wraps her arms around her shoulders, hugging her tightly from behind. It’s nice, very nice, but admittedly does little to ease Steph’s tensions.

Still, she sighs, relaxing in the older girl’s hold a little more.

“What the professor say?” Cass asks, calm as ever, then shifts to place a kiss in Steph’s hair.

The blond blows air out her nose, responding, “Well I brought up the insane two AM and Saturday text messages to him, and when he asked her why she wouldn’t wait for group contribution before turning it in, she tried to turn it on Neil, but Neil told the group beforehand he wouldn’t be available at a moments notice. It’s in our group contract, and he literally has a little kid. Then I read some of her nonsensical text messages, because what the fuck is she ever talking about. Then the wack job called me a bitch, in front of the whole group and the professor, and Professor Gibbons flipped out obviously. Now we have another fucking meeting tomorrow, in which we have to revise our group contract. I’m fairly certain he’s going to kick her from the group, cause ya know literally calling me a bitch in front of him, but I’m also not certain what’s gonna happen.”

The worst of the anger has left Steph, leaving her more tired than anything. It’s so frustrating.

Cass plants another kiss onto the side of her head. Damn her for knowing exactly how to calm her down, Steph wanted to keep all this anger for the meeting tomorrow.

A moment goes by in silence, with just Cass keeping her arms wrapped around her girlfriend. It’s impossible to stay on edge.

“I can’t believe she called me a bitch in front of the professor. That’s so insane,” steph says, chuckling a little to herself. It seems funnier now than it did a minute ago.

“She sounds unwell,” Cass responds, playing with Steph’s hair now.

That’s the understatement of the century.

Stephanie sighs again, looking around. Their shared apartment is a mess, and there’s no way in hell she’s even going to attempt to clean it today. Something tells her Cass is obviously the same as well. It can be put off for another few days, at least until after this Vera meeting stuff.

Still though, she needs to clean soon or the pure disaster of their living space is going to give her anxiety. Steph can let it get pretty chaotic with mess, but a genuinely dirty living space is where she draws the line. The dishes are already overflowing in the sink.

As if sensing her stress, Cass shifts so she’s rubbing her shoulders rather than holding them. It feels nice. It’s nice to live with Cass.

“You need a break,” the older girl suggests, and Steph isn’t going to argue with that.

Stephanie leans her head all the way back to look up at her girlfriend, and Cass just smiles when they make eye contact. It’s simple and domestic and it makes the younger girl feel better. No matter what happens with school, no matter what happens in Gotham, she has a soft lasting love. The kind that makes her happy everyday. It makes her a lucky person.

“I love you,” she says, so easily and carefree, and she’s lucky for that too. There’s no dancing around feelings in this home, no fear in expressing how you’re feeling at all times. There’s no point in even trying, Cass always knows anyways. It’s nice. It’s more than she’s ever had before.

“I love you too,” Cass tells her, leaning down to peck their lips together in a soft, upside down, kiss.

Distantly, out of spite, Steph bets to herself that Vera doesn’t have this. That she’s across the city somewhere, all alone, freaking out about the professor laying into her. That she’s having a meltdown about potentially getting thrown from class. If Steph was a little less petty, the thought would probably make her feel bad. But she is very petty, and that bitch needs to be taken down a peg. Maybe the school disciplinaries will cox her into therapy.

Cass takes her hand and leads her to the bedroom, there’s no sexual charge behind it, no passionate heat. Just the two of them falling into bed to hold onto each other. All thoughts of class and her group and that bitch fall from her mind, as she cuddles up into the crook of her girlfriend’s neck. She hadn’t realized how tired she was. A nap will be nice.

A nap with Cass, then dinner with Cass, and then maybe they can watch a movie before patrol. Or maybe other, more sexual things, if they’re feeling more energetic. Steph has a lot of tension to work out after all.

But for now it’s just cuddles. Laying together with gentle head kisses and bodies intertwined.

Before she knows it, Steph has fallen asleep

#stephanie brown #cassandra cain #stephcass #spoiler dc #black bat #orphan dc #batgirls #ficlet #batman fic #rez writes #that’s my new writing tag #figured I should start using one of those cause my blogs a mess lmao

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nightswithkookmin · 4 years

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I think Jikook acts different on cameras yess they flirt a lot but they don’t show us everything of course, Jikook has changed a lot from 2015-2020 It’s like they used to do a lot of things but back then they were very sneaky when they used to do things like when Jimin was playing footsies under the table in Hawaii , him being jungkooks room in the morning while he was taking a shower , them holding hands while suga body was hiding it , do you think they act different on camera now From before

Jikook act different on cameras? Oh god, I hope you don't mean to say Jikook is fanservice now cos...

I've heard this a lot in my Jikook lifetime and after Taekook's conversation in the Soop that narrative shot back to prominence. The behind the scenes of them at the photoshoot certainly hasn't helped things. Lol

Lord knows it created a schism between Jikookers as to what that moment was and what it meant in the grand scheme of things.

I know Jikook have personas, I've been saying this from the onset of my blog. I know Jikook are human, I've been preaching this from go. I know they have different personalities, hell my whole schtick about their love language has been around their personalities.

We don't know much about who they are behind the cameras but I'm glad at least people are probing into that and not taking Jikook at face value- that's what alternative shipping is. Reconstructing their 'real life' behind the scenes interactions based on their online interactions and the little clues they leave behind through their digital print- very heavy detective work lol and I'm all about that life.

I don't know them personally but if I were to reconstruct all of their interactions to guess at what goes on behind the scenes, I can tell you as a fact that Tae and JK are the least members who spend time together off cameras. I can tell you that much.

They will be followed closely behind by Tae and Jin, Suga etc. In my opinion. If there are any pairs that spend a lot of time together off cameras, to me, it would be Jimin and JK, followed by Jimin and Suga, Jimin and RM and of course VMin. You just have to pay attention to the things they do and say about eachother.

You only have to take one look at Jikook dancing in sync to the very tip of their hairs to know those two spend a lot of time practicing together off cameras. And when you hear them harmonizing- damn, you just know.

The members have pointed out Jikook's unique way of dancing planned and choreographed dance moves on stage and the look on Hobi's face in that reaction video says he was equally taken aback.

Jikook, out of all the members, have the most chemistry online in their interactions and a certain high levels of intimacy that to me the only way I can make sense of it is If they have carnal knowledge of eachother or have at least encroached on eachother's emotional and personal space in such a way that it blurs the lines of friendship a little bit resulting in synergies between them that is out of this world or both.

Because let's face it, neither of Jikook is peacefully mounting their respective partners without addressing the elephant in the room which is eachother staring at them go at it from the couch.

I have seen Jimin with his friends within and outside BTS to know he acts the same- THE SAME, with everybody skinship wise on and off camera and yet his intimacy with JK stands out the most- I wonder why. Smirk.

We've seen him drop softly into Sungwoo's laps at an award. We all saw it. And that was not 'on camera' and so we can't say he acts differently with JK off camera at least where skinship is concerned. Know what I mean?

And just the fact their rain fight was about Jimin caring too much about JK- we can't say JM doesn't care about JK off cameras either.

When JM tried doing his flirty gat shit with Suga, Suga scolded him saying he is not JK if my memory serves me right. So clearly the gay shit he does with JK is something he does offline too.

I can't say same for JK though because JM have said JK acts different with him on camera- cold on camera but warm off camera. I've mentioned this several times now so I won't get into it.

What I'm trying to say is, Jikook don't Jikook all the time but their interactions aren't exactly off of what we see on camera. Their personalities offline may be different but that doesn't mean their interactions offline are different or wildly different. Their interactions on line aren't so far off from their off line interactions such that we can brand what they do online as fanservice. In my opinion.

And also, something about the way JK reacts when he sees Jimin all over the members tells me he is not used to seeing JM prioritise others over him or have that intimacy with the members off camera. Yes, he does skinship with them and with his friends but I feel he does it the most with JK.

I mean if memories 2019 is anything to go by. Why do I feel I have answered this ask before? Lol.

Have their interactions changed online? Well for one, they aren't horny teenage boys anymore- ok, that's lie. They still got it like it was yesterday. Lol. They've matured a lot is what I mean. They've learned a lot and their fandom has equally grown enormously since those days.

I mean, let's be real, the Jikook ship tag wasn't as hot as it is now so they could get away with a lot of things back then. Now, they are one of the biggest ships not just in BTS or S.K but in world. There isn't much they can get away with. So their bandmates, editors etc. even they themselves check their behavior on camera a lot these days- especially with the jealousy and possessiveness bit. Lol.

Jk has really been trying. Jimin too. They crack sometimes but still you can see them putting in the effort- honestly, good for them. I can't be mad at that. We love positive change.

As for the sneaky behavior...

Chilee, I don't know. They still seem pretty gay, very risque to me. Lol

Jimin playing with Jk's titties in last year's season's greatings, dipping his hands in Jk's pockets- from JK's reaction it didn't seem like JM was reaching for Christ in those pockets. Cough cough.

And JK intentionally pushing his butt into JM's groin region- had my bias looking all kinds of confused. Poor Jimin! The sexual innuendos in that footage... good thing the editors cut that bit off. Good thing. And JM, you did not have to drop your eyes to the Jeon booty. You know you can't keep it straight. Jeon booty makes you weak and you know it. Lmho

Eye fucking eachother this year, blowing illegal kithes during the Dynamite reaction VLive - Tae didn't yell 'let's not look in the camera's because he thought they were about to harmonize for Jesus. Lmho. Dude is tired of their shenanigans- I feel you Tae. I'm done with them too. Gosh!

Jk interrupting Jin's call to ask JM on a date- now that was wild. Asking JM to change his clothes and come back to the live and that little gay panic moment JM had after hearing that. Oh Jimin! Bless his heart, he's weak. Lol

JK really wanted to do a live with JM so bad- I'm glad he got his wish later. And from the looks of it, seems he is still fighting to have another one (ALONE) with JM. Can't wait to see how that works out. For now, I know he is grounded. Lol

The bolder one this season for me has been JK. I think you have to go back towards the end of 2019 until JM's birthday this year and reevaluate their interactions. Jk has been holding it down, piloting the Jikook ship until August this year when JM started getting loud again with his overt flirtations.

No but seriously JK, you will do all of these bold wild moves and still not take a minute or two to wish him a happy birthday on his birthday. Then when we don't ship you with Jimin too you'll stand there looking like your cat got stuck in a tree- quirky for no reason this one. Chilee.

It's the, I love you Jiminah at the end of his call for me. I set that as my ringtone for months! Lol

And JM turning red on the couch during Bon Voyage four- c'mon now, that was something! Hobi was right, JM needed an ice pack- all night. Sksksksksksksksksksksjk

Don't mind me. I can be silly for no reason sometimes. Lol

It's not so much as that Jikook's interactions have changed for me. It's more so that there are a lot that has changed around them and in effect, is impacting their interactions on camera.

For one, as I keep pointing out, they don't have the freedom to do certain things anymore. Like, doing VLives on their own whenever they want like they used to do before. Now their vlives are heavily monitored, and the content they make on the app has been reduced to crafts and Arts- until Jimin's birthday live. You know my theory on that so...

VLive used to be one of the sources of their most authentic interactions. That and award shows, interviews and other contents BigHit has less control over. But all that have ceased due to the Corona Virus pandemic.

BTS's online presence, in the wake of the pandemic is also being heavily monetized. A simple tweet on Twitter from any of them has become very transactional- they have to be careful what they tweet because every tweet now is also a brand promotion for a phone campany.

Soop was equally that- brand promotion for Fila and all the big sponsors that sponsored that production, so bet your sweet ass they aren't going to let any 'controversial' sexual innuendo slip into that- but even that, chilee they tried. Lol. If you know, you know!

I'm waiting to see how they all interact with the VApp in the future, especially JK and Jikook.

And those moments, you pointed out are from Bon Voyage, no? I'm not gonna lie, I am wary of content that comes from BigHit editors. I think I've mentioned this a few times. They aren't stupid, they know what they are doing letting certain moments slip into screen time.

And some of the moments we think are authentic Jikook flirty interactions are just missions given them by the content developers- nobody wants Jikook to be gay more than bang PD and his shady ass editors trust me! Lmho.

Some moments too may be authentic coming from Jikook but that doesn't stop pro gay editornim from using it to his advantage. Chileee. I think I've talked about all of this?

All that being said, I think somethings will never change- like JM caring about JK or JK wanting Jimin. That is a Jikook thing. Yes, JM held JK's hand behind Suga when JK seemed- bored out of his mind. But JK rushed to console JM right after his ment in the recent Online concert. That right there was another Rosebowl moment for me and that would never change until they are no longer a couple.

That right there is also an example of the intimacy I talk so much about. It's that unconscious need to be there for eachother in a way I haven't seen anyone else in the group be that for either of them. They answer eachother's questions even if they don't ask. I don't see Tae traveling across podiums for JK or JK rushing from one end of a stage to another for anyone apart from JM. They really care about eachother and I don't think it's only on camera.

And you are right about their sneaky moments in those instances. sometimes these are moments Jikook breach the forth wall but other times too they are just balderdash. Lol

I think BigHit didn't see this pandemic coming, nobody did. Sometimes I feel they are in way over their heads with it, trying to maintain a steady stream of income inspite of it. But they are going to keep experimenting with content, experimenting with marketing strategies until they find that sweet spot.

I'd be ignorant and a hypocrite if I said all these new developments in no way impacts Jikook and their interactions. Or even their relationship. But one thing I know for sure is Jikook is not fanservice. They are not. And I don't think their affections for eachother has changed. They still got it.

I hope this helps. Stay safe and I purple you.

Signed,

GOLDY

#jikook is not fanservice #jikook is real #jikook is in love #jikook #kookmin #jikooktheories #jikook analysis #goldy

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